■c 




^•ts^^^SSS^&^SSI 



^ _ j LIBRAE! OF CONGUESS. 



€l)ap. 






Ci!g» 



UXITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Vi 



,^;V¥yoi 



^laMV' 



M 



m 



L 



^ 



|7, V' W ^ ^ 



ww^m^PFi 



^ \^i 



i 



'mm. 



^W'J^PB 




■SJ ■•'U. It? 




¥mm.. 



y-'^'^-jK/ 



MMU 



'¥M^M%/^ 



(yyi^iffii^yW^^ 



%Wat of t&e fttnt^ in ^pai% 



DURING THE REIGN 



EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 

" BY M. DE ROCCA, 

KNIGHT OF THE LEGION OF HONOPR„ 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, 
A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



SECOND AMERICAN, TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND PARIS EDITION. 



PHILADELPHM: 

PUBLISHED BY J. DOBSON, AT THE STONE HOUSE^ 
NO. 41, SOUTH SECOND STREET. 

.T, HARDING, PRINTER. 




Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit : 

^;«!i***« BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eighteenth day of July, in the 
*SeAL. || forty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, 
Si'iji^^**; A. D. 1820, Thomas Dobson & Son, of the said District, have de- 
posited in this office, the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as pro- 
prietors, in the words following, to wit : 

" Memoirs on the War of the French in Spain. By M. De Rocca, Officer 
' of Hussars and Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour. Translated 
" from the second Paris edition. 

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An 
Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, 
Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the 
times therein mentioned." And also to the Act, entitled. " An Act supplemen- 
tary to an Act, entitled, ' an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by secur- 
ing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of 
such Copies during the times therein mentioned,'' and extending the benefits 
thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other 
Prints. 

D. CALDWELL, 

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR 



The following narrative gives a lively description 
of the mode of warfare by which the Spaniards suc- 
cessfully resisted the usurpation of the throne of 
their hereditary sovereign, and baiRed by individual 
energy the victorious armies of their invaders. It is 
evidently the production of a gentleman more con- 
versant with the sword than with the pen; but not- 
withstanding frequent repetitions and inaccuracies, 
the result in part probably of negligence, it contains 
an interesting picture of national manners and many 
traits of acute observation. 

The translator has rarely altered the turn of his 
author's expressions; not solely because it was doubt- 
ful if this might be done with advantage to the text, 
but from the persuasion that versions from one Ian- 
gage into another ought to be executed with as close 
an adherence to the phraseology of the original, as 
the idioms of the two will permit. 

These memoirs, as M. de Rocca informs us in a 
short advertisement, were in the press in England 
before the capitulation of Paris in 1814, and the con- 



IV 

sequent restoration of the Bourbons. We know not 
the causes which induced the author to leave his 
native country; his work however would assuredly 
have exposed him to some inconvenience there be- 
fore the downfal of Napoleon. But, whether he wrote 
under the influence of personal feeling, or merely of 
sympathy with an unfortunate nation, whose suffer- 
ings he had witnessed, there appears none of that 
acrimony against the individual whose ambition 
caused those sufferings, which too frequently marks 
the recent records of that extraordinary man's achiev- 
ments. 

On the subject of another prominent character, 
M. de Rocca is more severe; yet he is not singular 
in his opinions and animadversions, and his censures 
are mild in comparison with those of much more 
influential agents of the Bonaparte power. The 
French troops in Spain ascribed their want of suc- 
cess in a great measure to the mistaken views and 
imprudent administration of the chief whom they 
were endeavouring to establish on the throne of that 
monarchy. The virtues and qualities which in pri- 
vate life render this personage respectable and amia- 
ble, formed perhaps the most material obstacles to 
bis political aggrandizement. 

The occasional traits of vanity which present them- 
selves in these memoirs will be readily excused in 
a young soldier; if a little overstepping of modesty 
be ever pardonable, it is iti a yo ! who before the 
age when others write man, has already paid the 



debt he owes to his country, by shedding his blood 
under her banners. 

The maxims and cautions dispersed throughout 
the work are valuable to the inexperienced soldier, 
as the result of practice in different descriptions of 
ground and under various circumstances; for there 
is perhaps no instruction in the science of war more 
impressive, than that which is conveyed through an 
entertaining and authentic recital of military adven- 
tures. 

M. de Rocca has subjoined to the narrative of 
the events in which he bore himself a humble part, 
a history of the campaign of 1810 and 1811 in Por- 
tugal; of this it has been justly said that it is " very- 
brief and perspicuous." The notes which are an- 
nexed to the original consist principally of official 
documents laid btrfore the British Parliament; these 
are to be found in the periodical publications of 
the time, and are therefore omitted in this volume; 
reference however is made to their dates, in order 
that the curious reader may be enabled to consult 
them. 

The following pages were ready for the press be- 
fore the American translator was aware that there 
already existed a version, published some time ago 
iji England. He has never heard, however, of its 
having found its way to this country, and has no 
means of judging of its merit but by a few extracts 
in the Edinburgh Review, No. 49. The praise 
which the Scottish critics bestow on M, de Rocca's 



VI 



work justifies the wish of presenting it to the Ame- 
rican public in our native tongue, while the speci- 
mens which they give of the London translation lead 
to the belief that it was executed by one not very 
familiar with the French language. 



Vll 



EXTRACT 

FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. 49. 



" For the purpose of bringing under the consideration of 
our readers, an interesting portion of recent histoiy, we have 
selected the present performance, which contains an account 
of the invasion of Spain by the French armies, and a general 
view of the causes which, notwithstanding a continued series 
of reverses, still gave energy to the Spanish cause. The au- 
thor, M. de Rocca, had a command in a regiment of French 
hussars and a place in the legion of honour. He entered 
Spain in the year 1808, along with the troops sent to rein- 
force the French armies, which were at that time encamped 
on the Ebro, under the command of Joseph; and, except du- 
ring a short interval in the year J 809, when he was sent 
against the English at Walcheren, he continued in Spain 
until the summer of 1810, when he was severely wounded in 
an encounter with a party of Spanish guerillas. He relates 
chiefly what came under his own personal notice; and as he 
seems to be an acute and discriminating observer, his re- 
marks, which are always lively, are frequently judicious and 
striking. In his account of the campaign, he certainly main- 
tains a tone of great impartiality; praising or blaming indif- 
ferently the plans and movements of the two contending ar- 
mies; while his narrative of military events is enlivened 
with some interesting sketches of Spanish manners, and with 
an amusing account of his own personal adventures." 

" The work concludes with a very brief and perspicuous 
account of the campaign in Portugal, which took place after 
our author quitted Spain, and which he justly tei'ms ' the 
chef-d'ceuvre of a defence at once national and military.' " 



PREFACE TO THE SECOJVD EBITIOJV. 



THE notice bestowed on the first edition of the 
following pages, has induced the translator to offer a 
second to the public, and to add some circumstances 
respecting the author, M. de Rocca, which had not 
come to his knowledge when the work was first 
printed in this city. The biography of an agreeable 
writer generally excites interest among his readers, 
and it is to be regretted that no other source of infor- 
mation is within reach, than the scanty one from 
which are derived the following particulars: for 
these we are indebted to a treatise on the character 
and writings of Madame de Htael by her friend and 
kinswoman, Madame Necker de Saussure, 

Although I am not writing the History of Madame 
de Stael, says this lady, I cannot pass over in silence 
so important an event as her second marriage. A 
young officer of respectable family had become the 
object of much attention at Geneva from the accounts 
given of his brilliant courage, and from the contrast 
between his youthful appearance and the feeble state 



of health to which he was reduced by the severe 
wounds he had received in Spain. A prodigious 
effect was produced on the imagination of this unfor- 
tunate gentleman by some kind expressions address- 
ed to him by Madame de Sfcael ; the tones of her 
voice seemed to have renovated his existence, his 
heart was inflamed with the most passionate love, 
and he immediately formed the design of rendering 
it reciprocal. "I will so love her/' was his decla- 
ration to an intimate friend, " that she shall be una- 
ble to refuse me her hand." These singular expres- 
sions might have been dictated by various motives ; 
but the most favourable interpretation cannot but be 
given to them by those who witnessed the enthusi- 
asm and devotedness of his attachment. 

Such lofty pretensions were seconded by favour- 
able circumstances. Madame de Stael was unhap- 
py and fatigued with persecution ; her soul required 
sympathy and support. At the moment w hen her 
captivity was becoming more and more irksome, and 
the clouds of misfortune thickening around her head, 
a new light burst upon her existence, and that bliss, 
of which the idea had never forsaken her imagina- 
tion as founded on ivedded love, for once seemed 
within her reach. Her opinions on this subject are 
well known. It was she who had said; "/ will 
force my daughter to marry for love.^' The hope 
of realizing such a union in her own person, had 
never been abandoned. When speaking of the asy- 
luia which she purposed to seek at a future day in 



XI 

England^ she had frequently said, "I experience 
the want of tenderness and support; and if 1 find in 
that country a man of elevated feelings, to him will 
I sacrifice my freedom." Such a man suddenly pre- 
sented himself. Doubtless she might have made a 
more suitable choice ; but it is precisely in love that 
the faculty of choice disappears. It is however cer- 
tain that the match was a happy one ; she had not 
overrated the character of M. de liocca, in whom 
she found tenderness, constant admiration, chivalric 
sentiments, a mind naturally poetical, and conside- 
rable talents. To all these qualities were superadd- 
ed cordial sympathy for his suiferings, and appre- 
hension for his existence, which incessantly excited 
her emotions and fettered her imagination. 

Unquestionably she would have done better if she 
had acknowledged her marriage ; but a sort of un- 
defined timidity and a natural fondness for the name 
which she had rendered illustrious^ restrained her, 
while her active mind found employment in combat- 
ing the embarrassments attendant on her new situa- 
tion. Shall we pronounce that she ought to have 
avoided that situation, that her conduct was often 
imprudent and incorrect? she would herself have 
been the first to admit the justice of the censure ; her 
writings as well as her conversations attest her con- 
sciousness on this subject. But how shall we describe 
her sufferings on the critical occasion, when M. de 
Rocca's life seemed in danger from his frequent ma- 
ladies ? At Pisa, where he lay almost expiring, she 



Xll 

compared her situation to that of marshal Ney, who 
was at that epoch expecting every moment to re- 
ceive sentence of death. She often spoke of her in- 
tention to write a work, whose title should be : There 
is but one irreparable evil in life; tJie loss of the ob- 
ject ofone^s love. 

This irreparable evil it was the lot of the young 
and unfortunate Rocca to undergo. The feeble frame, 
which for a little while had served to support an ex- 
istence, apparently so robust as madarae de StaePs, 
was destined to survive her; but not to survive her 
long. Grief soon terminated a life; which had ceased 
to be valued by its possessor. 



MEMOIRS 



ON THE 



WAR OF THE FRENCH IN SPAIN. 



PART I. 



The second regiment of Hussars, formerljr called 
that of Chamboran, in which I had the honour of 
serving, received, a twelvemonth after the close of 
the campaign which terminated with the battle of 
Friedland and the peace of Tilsit, orders to leave 
Prussia and to proceed to Spain. I had in conse- 
quence an opportunity of comparing two kinds of 
warfare absolutely different from each other; the one 
waged by regular troops who usually take little in- 
terest in the object of the quarrel which they are 
supporting, — the other a war of resistance, by which 
a nation is enabled to oppose victorious and disci- 
plined armies. 

We were leaving the sandy plains of northern 
Germany; we had had to deal with a population sub- 
ject, for the most part, to governments essentially 
military. The different sovereigns who compose the 
German empire, had for more than a century turned 
all their attention to perfecting those warlike institu- 

A 



tions which might secure their authority and further 
their personal ambition; but by accustoming their 
subjects to exact and scrupulous obedience, they 
had weakened the national character, which is the 
only invincible bulwark that nations can oppose to 
foreign invasion. 

When a province of Germany was conquered by 
the French, and could no longer receive the com- 
mands of its sovereign, the inferior classes, unac- 
customed to consult their own inclinations, durst not 
act without the impulse of their governments or of 
their nobles; these governments became, by con- 
quest, subject to the influence of the victor, and the 
nobles, long familiar with the aspect of the tempora- 
ry violence which soldiers exercise towards the mass 
of the population, endured with resignation the evils 
inseparable from v\ ar. 

In Prussia the clergy possessed little influence 
over the people; the reformation has destroyed, among 
the Protestants, that pouer which the priests have 
even in our day retained in some Catholic countries, 
and especially in Spain. Men of letters, who might 
have given a direction to public opinion and have 
rendered their acquirements useful to the cause of 
their country, were seldom called to take a part in 
public affairs; literary reputation was the sole object 
of thtir ambition, and the y rarely devofed themselves 
to pursuits or studies applicable to the circumstances 
of the time. The real strength of the various Ger- 
man States rested on their military systems, and 



their political existence depended entirely on the 
strength or weakness of their administrations. 

In the plains of Northern German}', the localities of 
the country did not allow the inhabitants to escape 
from the yoke of the conqueror, as may be done in 
countries of a different description. Small bodies of 
troops were sufficient to control large districts, and 
to insure the subsistence of our armies. The citizens 
would have been unable to find secure places of re- 
treat, if they had attempted partial revolts; moreover, 
the Germans, accustomed to a tranquil and regular 
course of life, never adopt desperate measures until 
their national habits have been completely eradicated. 

We had nothing to fear from the inhabitants in the 
districts conquered by our arms, and the war in Ger- 
many was carried on exclusively by troops of the 
line, between whom there exists rather an emulation 
of skill and valour than a feeling of hatred. The suc- 
cess of a campaign depended on the concert of mili- 
tary operations, on the activity and perseverance of 
the chief officers, and on their skill in foreseeing and 
disconcerting one another's plans, and in bringing at 
the proper moment and with rapidity, heavy masses 
of troops on decisive points of attack. They avoided 
all those litde partial rencounters, which in regular 
warfare serve only to render some individuals mise- 
rable, without contributing to any important advan- 
tage; and the plans of the generals were never coun- 
teracted by individual opposition, or by spontaneous 
insurrections of the inhabitants. 



4 

In Germany we had only governments and armies 
to overcome; in the Spanish peninsula, whither we 
were going, both government and regular troops had 
already ceased to exist. The emperor Napoleon had 
invaded Portugal and Spain, put to flight or led into 
captivity the sovereigns of those two nations, and 
disjiersed their military forces. We were not called 
upon to combat regular troops, which are every 
where much alike, but to fight with a population 
which its manners, its prejudices, and the nature of 
the country which it inhabits, distinguish from every 
other nation of the continent. The Spaniards were 
disposed to meet us with a resistance the more ob- 
stinate, as they believed that the French government 
wished to make the whole peninsula a state of the 
secondary order, irrevocably subject to French do- 
minion. 

With respect to mental improvement and social 
habits, Spain was more than a century behind the 
other continental states. The remote and almost in- 
sular situation of the country, and the severity of the 
religious institutions, had prevented the Spaniards 
from taking part in the disputes and controversies 
which had agitated and enlightened Europe during 
the sixteenth century; neither had they been affected, 
in the eighteenth, by the philosophical spirit, which 
was one of the causes of the French revolution. 

Although the Spaniards were too much abandon- 
ed to indolence, and notwithstanding the disorder 
and corruption which prevailed in the administration 



of public afFairs, the inevitable consequence of a des- 
potism of long standing, their national character had 
undergone no alteration; their government, arbitrary 
as it was, bore no resemblance to absolute military 
power, such as it existed in Germany, wh-^ re con- 
stant subjection to the mandates of one person un- 
ceasingly compressed the elasticity of individual ex- 
ertion. 

Ferdinand the Catholic, Charles the Fifth, and 
Philip the Second had, it is true, usurped almost all 
the privileges of the Grandees and of the Cortes, and 
had annihilated the liberties of the Spaniards; but 
the weakness of government, under their successors, 
had left at all times to the people, notwithstanding 
the despotism of the sovereign, a practical freedom, 
which often amounted to insubordination. 

In the annals of the German monarchies, we never 
read but of the sovereign and of his armies. From the 
epoch when Ferdinand the Catholic united the dif- 
ferent kingdoms of Spain, scarcely a single reign 
had passed without the manifestation on the part of 
the people, of their existence and of their strength, 
by imposing conditions on their rulers, and by ex- 
pelling some of their ministers or favourites. When 
the inhabitants of Madrid revolted for the purpose 
of requiring from Charles III., father of Charles IV., 
the dismissal of his minister Squilacci, the king was 
obliged in person to treat with his subjects, and to 
put himself under the protection of a monk, who held 
a crucifix in his hand. The court, which had fled to 



Aranjuez, afterwards wished to march the Walloon 
guards against Madrid; the people killed several of 
them, and on all sides was heard, *' Si entraran los 
Vallones, no reynaran los Borbones,'*'^* " if the Wal- 
loons enter Madrid, the Bourbons shall cease to 
reign." The Walloon guards did not enter, Squilacci 
was dismissed, and order was restored. At Berlin 
and in Prussia generally, the inhabitants respected 
the soldiers of their king in their military functions, 
as the soldiers themselves respected their officers; at 
Madrid, the centinels on post to cause the sovereign'^ 
orders to be executed, made way for the humblest 
citizen. 

The revenue attached to the crown of Spain was 
very limited, and but a small number of troops could 
be kept on foot; the regiments of the line, with the 
exception of some privileged corps, were incomplete, 
ill paid and badly disciplined. The priesthood was 
the only efficient controlling force which the kings of 
Spain possessed; it was through the exhortations of 
the ministers of the altar, and by presents of pontifi- 
cal ornaments or relics, that they repressed or dis-. 
persed popular tumults. 

The Spanish priests hated the French both from 
patriotism and from self-interest; for they were aware 
that it was in contemplation to abolish their privileges, 
gnd to deprive them of their property and of their 
temporal power. Their opinions carried with them 

* Vide, note 1st. 



the more numerous portion of the nation; and we 
had in fact almost as many enemies to combat, a.s the 
peninsula contained inhabitants. 

The lofty and barren mountains which surround 
and traverse Spain, were inhabited by a warlike po- 
pulation, inured to arms from their habits of smug- 
gling, and accustomed to defeat the troops of their 
own nation, who were frequentiy sent against them. 
The unconquered spirit of the inhabitants, the mild- 
ness of the climate, which allows them to live almost 
the whole year in the open air, and to abandon their 
dwellings whenever they think it necessary; the in- 
accessible fastnesses of the mountains in the interior, 
the sea which beats upon their extensive coasts,— 
all these important results of national character, cli- 
mate and localities could not fail to afford the Spa=. 
niards innumerable facilities for withdrawing from 
the oppression of the conqueror, and to double the 
effect of their own forces, whether by transporting 
them with rapidity to points where the French were 
weak, or by enabling them to escape pursuit, when 
their enemies were too strong for them. 

When we left our cantonments in Prussia to march 
into Spain, late in August, 1808, we had reflected 
little on the obstacles we were about to encounter in 
a country so new to us. We thought we were en- 
gaged in an expedition of no difficulty, and of short 
duration; having conquered in Germany, we suppo- 
sed that nothing henceforward could resist us. 
Our soldiers never enquired to what country they 



8 

were going, but if there was abundance of provi- 
sions at their place of destination; — this was the only 
point of view in which they contemplated geog'v.phy. 
The world was divided for them into two part-^ — 
the fortunate zone, where the vine grows, — yi»d the 
detestable zone, which is deprived of that production. 
As they were told at the commencement of every 
campaign, that they were called out to inflict the last 
blow on the tottering power of the English, they 
confounded this power in all its forms with the idea 
of England herself. They estimated the distance 
which separated them from that country by the num- 
ber of marches which they had been performing for 
many years, from one extremity of the world to the 
other, without reaching this kind of imaginary and 
distant region, which continually receded before 
them. "Well," they would say, "if the desart separat- 
ed us from it in Egypt, and the sea at Boulogne, we 
shall soon arrive there now by land through Sj^ain." 
After having passed the Elbe and the Weser, we 
reached the left bank of the Rhme and found our- 
selves in France. For two months before, there had 
been rumours of an approaching war with Austria, 
and when we left Prussia in September, 1808, we 
were all persuaded that we were destined for the Da- 
nube.' It was with deep regret and almost tears that 
our hussars left Germany, that fine country which 
they had then conquered, that brilliant theatre of war 
from which they carried with them so many glori- 
ous recollections, and in which some of them had 



9 

tven been fortunate enough to render themselves iil- 
dividually beloved. 

We traversed France as if it had been a land re*- 
cently conquered and subjected to our arms. The 
emperor Napoleon had given orders that his soldiers 
should be welcomed and feasted every where; depu- 
tations came to compliment us at the gates of his 
good cities. The officers and soldiers were conducted 
immediately on their arrival to sumptuous banquets 
prepared before hand; and moreover, on our depar- 
ture the magistrates thanked us for having been good 
enough to spend in one day, the amount of several 
weeks revenue from their municipal taxes. 

The soldiers of the grand army did not lose in 
France the habit which they had contracted in Ger- 
many, of maltreating sometimes the townsmen and 
peasants at whose houses they were quartered. The 
auxiliaries of the allied powers especially, would not 
comprehend why they should conduct themselves 
in France otherwise than in an enemy's country 5 
they said that it must unquestionably be the custom 
to do so, inasmuch as the French troops had not 
acted differently in their country, in Germany and 
Poland. The inhabitants of the towns and villages 
through which we passed endured every thing pa^- 
tiently, until the torrent of armed men had subsided. 

Our troops consisted (besides French) of GermanSj 
Italians, Poles, Swiss, Dutchmen, and even of Irish" 
men and Mamelukes. These foreigners were clad 
in their national uniforms, preserved their peculiar 



10 

habits, and spoke their own languages; but notwith* 
standing this dissimilarity of manners, which raises 
barriers between nations, military discipline easily 
succeeded in uniting the whole under the powerful 
hand of one individual; all these men wore the same 
cockade; they had the same watch-word and the same 
war-cry. 

We crossed the Seine at Paris, the Loire at Sau- 
mur, the Garonne at Bourdeaux; here we rested for a 
few days, for the first time since our departure from 
Prussia, whilst the rest of the army crossed to the 
opposite bank of the river. We then traversed the un- 
cultivated barrens between Bourdeaux and Bayonne. 
In those solitary plains, as in the flats of Prussia and 
Poland, the sandy soil ceased to resound under the 
horses' feet; the regular and accelerated sound of 
their steps no longer served to reanimate their spirit. 
Vast forests of pine and cork trees skirt the horizon 
at great distances; here and there are seen shepherds 
clothed in black sheep-skins, mounted on stilts six 
or seven feet in height, and resting against a long 
staff; they remain motionless on the same spot, never 
losing sight of their flocks, which feed on the downs 
around them. When the emperor Napoleon crossed 
these barrens, the poverty of the country prevented 
its furnishing him, as usual, with a guard of honour 
of cavalry; he was escorted by a detachment of these 
shepherds, who kept pace on their tall stilts with the 
trot of the horses through the sand. 

Some leagues beyond Bayonne, we reached the 



11 

Bidassoa, a small stream which forms the limit of 
France in the Pyrrenees. As soon as one has set foot 
on the Spanish territory, a sensible change in the as- 
pect of the country and the manners of the inhabi- 
tants is discernible. The narrow and crooked streets 
in the towns, the grated windows, the doors of the 
houses always strictly closed, the severe and reserv- 
ed demeanour of all classes of the people, the suspi- 
cion which they universally expressed of us, added 
to the involuntary sadness which seized us on our 
entrance into Spain. 

We saw the emperor Napoleon pass on his way 
to Vittoria; he was on horseback; the plainness of his 
green uniform distinguished him amidst the richly 
dressed generals who surrounded him; he saluted 
each officer separately with a motion of his hand, by 
which he seemed to say, — I count upon you. French- 
men and Spaniards had assembled in crowds to see 
him pass; the former saw in him alone the fortune of 
the whole army; the Spaniards sought to read in his 
eyes and in his demeanour, what was to be the des- 
tiny of their unhappy country. 

In the latter part of October, 1808, the grand 
army of Germany came in succession to unite itself 
to the French army which King Joseph commanded 
in Spain. It was now only that we learned with as- 
tonishment from our brothers in arms, a part of the 
events of the peninsular war, and the details of the 
unfortunate affairs which had obliged the generals 
Dupont and Junot to capitulate in Andalusia and in 



12 

Portugal, marshal Moncey to retire from Valenciaj, 
and finally the whole army to concentrate itself on 
the left bank of the Ebro. ^^^ 

In the night of the 8 th of November, the imperial 



(1) King Joseph was at Vittoria with the general staff of 
his army and his guards. Marshal Moncey, with his corps,, 
was at Tafalla, observing the Spanish army under general 
Palafox, stationed at Sanguessa on the frontiers of Navarre 
and Arragon. The troops under the orders of marshal Ney 
occupied Logronio and Guardia; they had before them, in 
the environs of Tudela on the Ebro, the Spanish armies 
comma,nded by generals Castaiios and Palafox which, to- 
gether, must have amounted to 40,000 men. Marshal Bes= 
sieres was at Miranda de I'Ebro; he had left, on retiring, a 
garrison in the fort of Pancovvo; his position was covered by 
the numerous and well-mounted cavalry of general Lassalle. 
Marshal Lefevre occupied Durango; the corps commanded 
by the marshals Bessieres and Lefevre were opposed to the 
Spanish armies of the center and of the left, under the orders 
pf the generals Belvedere and Blake. The Spanish army of 
the center, placed at Burgos, was from 12 to 14,000 men 
strong only. It was to be reinforced by 26,000 English troops, 
who were advancing from Portugal and Coruiia under the 
generals Moore and Sir D. Baird. This army was destined 
to support the army of the right, which general Blake com- 
manded in Biscay, and to keep up the communications with 
the Spanish armies in Arragon and Navarre. Vide note 2, at 
the end of the volume. 

The army of general Blake, although 37,000 strong, had 
little cavalry, and therefore did not venture into the plains 
in the environs of Miranda and Vittoi'ia; it had quitted its 
positions between Ona Prias and Erron, in order to take 
possession of Bilbao, and had advanced across the moun- 
tains which separate Biscay from the province of Alava, as. 



13 

head-quarters were removed from Vittoria to Mi= 
randa. The following day the whole army of the 
center, of which we were a part, commenced its 
march under the immediate orders of the emperor. 
We were destined to make a powerful effort upon 
Burgos, where was the center of the Spanish forces, 
in order to threaten afterwards by a rapid advance, 
the flanks of their armies of the right and left in Bis- 
cay and towards the frontiers of Navarre and Arra- 
gon. We wished to prevent these armies from con- 
centrating upon Madrid, if they retired, or to cut 
them oflT from their communications, by falling upon 
their rear, if they attempted a resistance. 

For this purpose our army of the right, composed 
of the corps of marshals Victor and Lefevre, was to 

far as Zornosa and Archandiano, towards Durango, in order 
to excite the country to insurrection and to attack the right 
and the communications of the army of king Joseph. The 
Spanish armies of Navarre and Arragon were to execute a 
similar movement against the center and left of the French, 
for the purpose of forcing them to retreat by the way of 
Tolosa, or else to drive them into the defilees of Navarre, 
near Pampeluna. Such were the projects of the Spaniards 
and the situation of affairs, when the emperor Napoleon as- 
sumed the command of the armies in Spain, 

On the 31st of October, 1808, the corps of mai'shal Le- 
fevre had attacked the army of general Blake near Durango, 
had driven it back, and had entered Bilbao the following day. 
The corps of marshal Victor moved, on the 6th of Novem- 
ber, from Vittoria upon Orduna. It was destined to form, in 
conjunction with that of marshal Lefevre, our army of the 
right. 



14 

continue its march against Blake's army which was 
retreating upon Espinosa, after having been beaten 
back from Durango and Valmaceda. Our army of 
the left, under marshals Lasnes and Moncey, re- 
mained in the environs of Logronio and Tafalla; it 
waited, to commence its movement and to ascend 
the Ebro towards Saragossa, until the result of the 
affair (which we were indubitably about to have at 
Burgos) should be known. 

The imperial head-quarters arrived at Briviesca on 
the evening of the 9th; the army under the emperor's 
orders cantoned in the vicinity of the town. The in- 
habitants had every where fled into the mountains on 
our approach. 

The 10th, at day-break, marshal Soult reconnoi- 
tered, with a division of infantry, the enemy's posi- 
tions in the direction of Burgos. On his arrival at the 
village of Gamonal, he was received with a discharge 
of thirty pieces of cannon. This was for the French 
the signal of attack. Marslial Soult did not wait for 
the remainder of the army which was following him; 
he immediately commenced the combat, and drove 
before him the Walloon and Spanish guards, who 
composed the principal force of the enemy. Marshal 
Bessieres having afterwards come up with the caval- 
ry, outflanked the enemy's wings, completed their 
rout, and entered Burgos pell-mell with the van- 
quished. 

Our brigade ©f Hussars was the only part of the 
army which had remained behind, in a secluded 



15 

Cantonment two leagues in the rear of Briviesca. The 
adjutant who was to bring us orders to march, had 
missed his way, not having been able to procure a 
guide, and we set out only at nine o'clock in the 
morning. We followed the track of the army during 
the whole day, without suspecting what had taken 
place that very morning in our front. 

When night came on, we discerned at a great 
distance before us the fires of the advance of our 
army. Notwithstanding the darkness, we discovered 
by the motions of our horses that we were travers- 
ing a field of battle; they slackened their pace every 
other moment, raising their feet cautiously, for fear 
of touchhig the dead bodies over which they were 
passing. They stopped also now and then to drop 
their heads and smell with affright at the carcasses 
of the horses which had been killed in the late ac- 
tion. 

Burgos had been entirely abandoned by its in- 
habitants. That large city was now a vast solitude; 
when our troops arrived there immediately after the 
battle, it had been abandoned to pillage. In the quar- 
ter by which we entered, we heard on all sides the 
murmur and confusion of voices of the soldiers who 
were coming and going in every direction, seeking 
provisions and utensils in the deserted houses. They 
carried, to light them, enormous candles which they 
had found in the neighbouring convents. Further 
on, in a part of the town less frequented by our 
troops, we heard the stifled and mournful cries of 



16 

the sick and aged, who too weak to make theif 
escape, had taken refuge in a church, where they 
were crowded in great numbers; they were reciting 
prayers with their curates, in anticipation of the 
death which they beheved to be awaiting them. The 
feeble rays of the holy lamp glimmered through the 
painted windows of the church. We passed between 
two high walls made of enormous bales of wool, 
which the Spaniards had collected from all quarters, 
to transport them after their army into the south of 
France, thinking themselves secure of gaining a great 
victory over us. 

We reached, at eleven at night, the bivouac which 
had been designated for us near the banks of the 
Arlanzon. When day appeared, we beheld in the 
shallow river whicn flowed near us, the dead bodies 
of some Spanish soldiers and monks who had been 
killed the day before. 

The 11th, our brigade of light cavalry set out at 
sun-rise to explore the country above, on the Ar- 
lanzon. We discovered at a distance on the banks 
of the river, troops of peasants and towns- people, who 
were retiring behind the heights or between the 
steeps of the opposite bank. Often nothing of them 
was to be seen but their heads, which rose now and 
then above the bushes, to ascertain if we had gone 
by. 

Some of our flankers met some nuns, who had 
left Burgos the day before, during the engagement. 
These poor girls, some of whom had never before 



17 

been outside of the walls of their convents, had in 
their terror walked without stopping as far as their 
feet could carry them, and had come to hide them- 
selves in the thickets near the river. They had at 
first dispersed on seeing us advancing at a distance; 
then they gvithered together on our approach, and 
threw themselves on their knees closely pressed to 
each other, with their heads bent down and wrapt in 
their hoodb. One of them who had prcberved more 
presence of mind than her companions, stood up in 
front of them. Candor and dignity were expressed 
on her physiognomy, uni ed to that appearance of 
calmness which is produced by great emotion in the 
moment of despair. The nun who stood up, repeated^ 
while moving the beads of her chaplt t, to the soldiers 
as they passed her, as if to implore their protection, 
these only words which she knew of our language; 
*' Bon jour. Messieurs Frangais." These poor wo- 
men were left unmolested. 

We passed four days at a large village four leagues 
from Burgos, of which I know not the name, be- 
cause we found nobody from whom we could get 
the information. The imperial quarters remained at 
Burgos until the 22d. That city was in the centre 
of all the military operations, and from thence com- 
munications could be established, with equal facility, 
between the different armies in Biscay and in Arra- 
gon, and at the same time the progress of those 
corps could be observed, and reinforcements sent to 
them in case of necessity. 

C 



18 

The day after the action of Burgos, numerous de- 
tachments were sent in all directions in pursuit of 
the enemy, in order to complete the destruction of an 
army which an easy victory had dispersed, but which 
might yet not be totally annihilated. Ten thousand 
cavalry and twenty pieces of artillery were dispatched 
to pour down rapidly, by Placentia, Leon, and Za- 
mora, on the rear of the English army, which was 
thought to be at Valladolid. Marshal Soult proceed- 
ed by Villarcayo and Reynosa to get in the rear of 
the left of the Spaniards. One division of infantry 
went, by a more direct route, to occupy the gorges 
of the mountains near Sant-Andero; these troops, 
notwithstanding the rapidity of their march, met with 
none of the enemy. General Blake's army, which 
had retreated after the affair of Durango, had in vain 
endeavoured to rally, first at Guenes and then at 
Valmaceda. Pursued by marshal Victor, in the di- 
rection of Espinosa, and by marshal Lefevre in that 
of Villarcayo, it bad finally suffered a total defeat on 
the 10th of November, at Espinosa, after a combat 
which lasted two days. 

The Spanish armies of the center and of the left 
having been beaten on every point, there remained, 
before advancing upon Madrid, nothing to do but to 
disperse their armies of the light. Marshal Ney's 
corps was sent for this purpose from Burgos, by 
Lerma and Aranda, to follow upwards the course of 
the Duero, then fall down towards the Ebro, in order 
to take in reverse the corps of generals Castanos and 



19 

Palafox, who were shortly to be attacked in front by 
the corps of marshals Lannes and Moncey. These 
French corps of our left were yet occupying Logro- 
nio and Tafalla, and were preparing to go down the 
banks of the Ebro. 

On the 15th of November our brigade of hussars 
joined at Lerma the corps commanded by marshal 
Ney, to which it remained thenceforward attach- 
ed. On the 16th marshal Ney's army moved from 
Lerma to Aranda; the inhabitants continued to aban- 
don their dwellings on our approach, carrying off 
with them into the mountains their most valuable 
effects. The solitude and desolation which victorious 
armies usually leave behind them, seemed to have 
preceded us wherever we arrived. 

In approaching the deserted cities and villages of 
Castille, we never discovered those smoky vapours 
which form a second atmosphere over inhabited and 
populous places. Instead of living sounds, nothing 
was heard withhi the walls of the towns but the me- 
lancholy striking of the clocks, or the croaking of 
the crows which flitted around the lofty steeples. The 
houses almost all empty, served but to echo tardily 
and with harsh repetition, the loud clamour of our 
drums and trumpets. 

Quarters were assigned to the troops with prompt- 
ness; each regiment occupied a square, and each 
company a street, according to the size of the town. 
Soon after arriving, our soldiers found themselves 
established in their new habitations, as if they were 



20 

come to found a colony. This warlike and temporary 
population gave new names to the places it occupied. 
We spoke of the dragoons' square, such a company's 
street^ our generafs house, the main guard square^ 
the alarm square. On die walls of a convent would 
be wriiten with charcoal, barracks of such a battalion. 
From one of the cells of a deserted convent might be 
seen a sign with a French inscription exhibiting the 
name of one of the first restaurateurs of Paris; it was 
some sutiler, who had hastened to set up in this 
place hi^ travelling tavern. 

When the army arrived late at night at the place 
where it was to hah, the quarters could not be dis- 
tributed with regulurity; then we took up our lodg- 
ings militarily, that is, without distinction and with- 
out order, wherever we found room. As soon as the 
main guards had taken post, on a given signal the 
soldiers left their ranks, precipitated themselves all 
together, tumultuously, like a tor. i nt, into the town, 
and for a long time after the yrrivaS of the army no- 
thing was heard but loud shouts and the noise of 
breaking down doors with axes or stones. Some 
grenadiers discovered a method as prompt as it was 
efficacious, of opening such doors as made an obsti- 
nate resistance, by putting the muzzles of their mus- 
kets to the locks and firing them in that situation; 
they thus defeated the precautions of the inhabitants, 
who always carefully shut up their houses before they 
fled into the mountains upon our appearance. 

Marshal Ney's corps left Aranda the morning of 



21 

the 20th; we ascended for two days the banks of the 
Duero, being without intelligence of the enemy, and 
never meeting with a living being. The 21st, a little 
before sun- set, we remarked some uncertainty in the 
movements of our scouts. We immediately formed 
squadron, and soon afterwards our advanced platoon 
was engaged with a party of the enemy, which was 
beaten off without difficulty; we made a few prison- 
ers on entering Almazan. 

The corps of marshal Ney passed the night at a 
bivouac under the walls of this town; it had been 
forsaken by the inhabitants. The night was too far 
advanced to make the regular distribution of provi- 
sions, and unfortunately it was impracticable to pre- 
vent the soldiers from plundering during a half hour, 
under the pretext of providing necessaries. That 
same evening we sent out parties of twenty-five men 
each, to reconnoitre in different directions. The de- 
tachment which went towards Siguenza returned in 
the night, bringing in some baggage and a few pri- 
soners. Marshal Ney's corps set out the following 
day, the 2 Sid of November, for Soria. Our regiment, 
the 2d hussars, was left alone at Almazan, to guard 
the communications with Burgos, through Aranda, 
and to observe the enemy's troops said to be in the 
environs of Siguenza, Medina-Celi and Agreda. 

On the 24th I was ordered at break of day to re- 
connoitre with twenty-five horse the direct road which 
leads from Almazan to Agreda. Being unable to 
procure a guide, I ascended with my detachment 



22 

the right bank of the Duero, according to the direc- 
tion indicated by a bad French map which deceived 
me, and we lost our wa)''. After a fatiguing march of 
four hours,' by cross-paths we discovered two children, 
who were running towards a thicket, and uttering 
cries of affright; I followed them, and found myself 
on a sudden in the midst of a camp of women who 
had escaped from the neighbouring villages, to con- 
ceal themselves with their children and their sheep, 
in a small island formed by the river. I arrived so 
unexpectedly among them, that I succeeded in tran- 
quillizing them by signs, before I was followed by 
my detachment. I enquired of them by the interpre- 
ter who accompanied me, which was the direct road 
from Almazan to AgrSda. An aged priest, the only 
man who was with these women, answered that I had 
come more than four leagues out of my way, and he 
pointed out the right road on the opposite side of the 
river. We traversed a number of villages and ham- 
lets, which were inhabited by men only, and at last 
reached our destination. 

My interpreter was a Flemish deserter whom hun- 
ger and the apprehension of being massacred by the 
peasants had induced to surrender himself to us 
after the affair of Burgos; we had nicknamed him 
Blanco, because he had put on, to guard himself 
from the cold, over his worn and torn uniform of 
the Walloon guards, a dominican monk's white 
frock which the hussars had given him; he had co- 
vered his head with the enormous hat worn by the 



23 

monks of that order. At the inhabited villages which 
wc passed, the peasants supposed, on seeing him tra- 
velling on foot before us, that he was a real monk 
whom we were conducting away by force; they sa- 
luted him respectfully with expressions of pity for 
his unhappy fate, and they all gave money to the 
reverend father, who proud of his honours, would 
not, for some time after he had an opportunity of 
doing it, relinquish a costume which he found so 
lucrative. 

In consequence of having been without a guide, 
it took us nine hours to complete a journey of only 
four leagues in a direct line. This difficulty of pro- 
curing guides was repeated every instant, because 
the inhabitants abandoned all their villages on our 
approach. 

Our regiment received orders to leave Almazan 
that very evening. We marched a day and a night, 
almost without stopping, and joined marshal Ney's 
corps as it was entering Agr6da by the route of 
Soria. The infantry were lodged in the town. The 
light cavalry was sent a league further, upon the 
road to Cascante, to cover the position of the army. 
We believed ourselves to be very near and behind 
the left wing of the Spanish forces. 

The town of Agreda was deserted; the chief of 
the staft' of our brigade looked in vain for a guide, 
and we were obliged to seek, with the aid only of 
the map, the cantonment which had been designated 
for us. Night coming on, we soon lost our way in 



24 

the mountains, and deceived by the cloudy dark^^ 
ness which surrounded us we fancied ourselves con* 
tinually on the edge of some precipice. Whenever 
we had advanced about a hundred yards, long halts 
were ordered, while those who were at the head of the 
column endeavoured to feel their way among the 
rocks, and the profound silence of night was then 
only broken by the pawing and snorting of the horses, 
who champed their bits, impatient to arrive and re- 
pose themselves. We had dismounted and were 
marching in file, listening to and repeating by turns, 
on approaching the bad passes and precipices, the 
cautions which were communicated in whispers, for 
fear of alarming a corps of troops whose half extin- 
guished fires we saw on the opposite side of a deep 
ravine. We were ignorant whether they were friends 
or foes; and an attack by infantry would have been 
fatal to us in our situation. 

We thus passed the whole night in continued 
marches and counter marches. The moon having 
risen a little before, day, we found ourselves very 
nearly on the spot which we had left the day before, 
and we perceived at last at the boitoni of a narrow 
valley, the village where we ought to have passed 
the night; we had been marching more than thirty 
hours. The impossibility of obtaining guides pre- 
sented in this manner at every step a thousand diffi- 
culties in detail, of a kind novel to us. In those 
thinly peopled districts, of which all the inhabitants 
were hostile to us, we rarely met with individuals 



25 

who could, even without seeking to deceive us, give 
us any sort of information respecting the enemy. 

We learned, but it was too late, that the army 
under generals Castanos and Palafox had been com- 
pletely defeated at Tudela, on the 23d; if we had 
arrived one daj'^ sooner at Agreda, we should have 
met and taken prisoners, in that city, the dispersed 
columns of Spaniards who were retreating upon 
Madrid. 

Our army of the left, of which we were destined 
to support the movements, had been concentrated 
on the 22d, at the bridge of Lodosa. The 23d it had 
met the Spanish army of the right, drawn up in order 
of battle a league in extent, between Tudela and the 
village of Cascante. Marshal Lannes caused the cen- 
ter of the enemy's line to be pierced by a division of 
infantry, which advanced in close column; the cavalry 
of general Lefevre passed immediately through the 
opening, and surrounded by an oblique movement 
the right wing of the Spaniards. Once broken on a 
single point, they were unable to manoeuvre, and 
retired in disorder, leaving thirty pieces of cannon, 
many killed and a great number of prisoners on the 
field of battle. 

The Spaniards had conceived such confidence in 
their own forces, after the retreat of king Joseph 
upou the Ebro, in the month of July, that when 
about to engage with us, dieir anxiety did not rest 
on the means of resisting us, or of securing .their re- 
treat in case of ill-success, but on the apprehension 

D 



26 

lest any of the French should make their escape. 
They judged of the event of a battle by the ardent 
desire they entertained of vanquishing and destroy- 
ing their enemies. Not knowing how to manoeuvre, 
fearing not to be able to display their columns in 
time to surround us, they ranged themselves in long 
lines without depth, in plains where the superiority 
of our tactics and of our cavalry, necessarily gave us 
the advantage. This order of battle, which is repre- 
hensible even for well-disciplined troops, deprived 
the Spaniards of the means of reinforcing with rapi- 
dity the points attacked by our columns or of con- 
centrating themselves to resist our charges. Our 
troops had experienced more resistance in Biscay 
and the Asturias, because they had there to fight 
amidst mountains, where the difficulties of the 
ground and individual courage are sometimes suffi- 
cient to defeat the calculations of military art; before 
they reached Reynosa, they had been obliged to con- 
quer at Durango, Zornosa, Guenes, Valmaceda, 
and lastly at Espinosa. 

Not a Frenchman then doubted but that such ra- 
pid victories had already decided the fate of Spain. 
We believed, and all Europe believed with us, that 
we had only to march upon Madrid in order to com- 
plete the subjection of the kingdom and to organize 
it in the French way; that is, to encrease our means 
of further conquests by all the resources of the van- 
quished enemy. The wars in which we had hereto- 
fore been engaged had accustomed us to see in a 



27 

nation only its military forces, and to count for no- 
thing the spirit which animated its citizens. 

The 26th of November, marshal Ney's army 
moved by Cascante upon Borja. A division under 
general Maurice Mathieu preceded us by one day's 
march, making many prisoners as it advanced. On 
the 27th we arrived at Alagon, a large village, four 
leagues from Saragossa, whose numerous spires we 
beheld from a distance. The Arragonese had not suf- 
fered themselves to be discouraged by the recent 
disasters of their armies; they had resolved to de- 
fend Saragossa. They had not been able to surround 
themselves M'ith regular fortifications; but they had 
converted each house into a separate fortress, and 
everv convent, every dwelling required a distinct as- 
sault. This kind of fortification is perhaps the most 
efficient of any to protract a siege. 

Palafox had just thrown himself into the city with 
a body of ten thousand men whom he had saved 
after the battle of Tudela; and those same soldiers 
of the army of Arragon, whom we had defeated with 
scarcely an eflfort, in the open country, made within 
the walls of their principal town a resistance which 
lasted nearly a twelvemonth. 

Fifty thousand armed peasants were hastening to 
the defence of Saragossa; they precipitated them- 
selves from every quarter into that city, through our 
victorious columns, fearful of arriving too late at 
the spot where they were summoned by the impulse 
of their souls and the love of country. " The mira- 



28 

eulous Virgin del Pilar," they said, "has protected 
us for ages; in the days of peace we crowded in pil- 
grimage to her shrine to solicit from her abundant 
harvests; we will not now, in the hour of her distress, 
leave her altars without defence." 

The character of the Spaniards of these provinces 
resembles in no particular that of the other nations 
of Europe. Their patriotism is emphatically religi- 
ous like that of the ancients, who never yielded to 
despair or acknowledged themselves vanquished, in 
spite of repeated defeats, so long as they preserved 
unmolested the altars of their tutelary deities. The 
sacred eagles of the god of the capitol conducted the 
Romans to victory; and when, subsequently to the 
days of chivalry, modern armies were organized 
after the method of the Romans, the point of honour 
was substituted among regular troops for the rehgi- 
ous sentiment which attached the soldiers of Rome 
to their standards. Discipline founded on the mili- 
tary point of honour has caused armies to triumph 
in our days; but political or religious enthusiasm 
alone can render nations unconquerable. 

The Spaniards were generally and solely animated 
by a sentiment of religious patriotism; they had no 
practical acquaintance with discipline and the laws 
of war. They abandoned their colours without 
scruple after a defeat; they did not hold themselves 
bound to keep faith with their enemies; they had 
but one motive, one wish, and that was to wreak 
their vengeance by all possible methods on the 



29 

French for the evils they were inflicting upon their 
country. 

One of these armed peasants was overtaken by 
some of our scouts; he was a'-med with a fowling- 
piece, and was driving before him an ass loaded with 
provisions. The officer who commanded our advance, 
taking pity of him, gave orders to leave him at li- 
berty, and made signs to him to escape into the moun- 
tain. The peasant at first seemed to understand; left 
to himself, he loaded his gun, and returned soon af- 
terwards into the midst of our men to take deliberate 
aim at his deliverer. The piece was fortunately turn- 
ed aside. This Spaniard expected to die a martyr, 
for killing one whom he mistook for one of our prin- 
cipal officers. When we halted, he was conducted be- 
fore the colonel of our regiment. 

We surrounded him, curious to observe him; a 
gesture of one of our hussars having induced him to 
think he was about to be shot, he knelt down with- 
out betraying the least mark of fear, prayed to God 
and to the Virgin Mary, and thus awaited the exe- 
cution of his sentence. He was raised up, and sent 
in the evening to head-quarters. If these people had 
known how to fight as well as how to die, we should 
not have crossed the Pyrenees so easily. 

Marshal Lannes's army remained in Arragon to be- 
siege Saragossa; marshal Ney's continued by forced 
marches to pursue the fragments of Castanos's forces, 
which were retiring upon Guadalaxara and Ma- 
drid. On the 28th the advanced division cut to pieces 



30 

the rear- guard of the Spaniards, who attempted to 
defend the pass of Briviesca on the Xalon. 

The march of our troops was often continued 
after night; and it was usual, in passing near the dif- 
ferent squadrons, to hear Italians, Germans, and 
Frenchmen singing their national songs, thus forget- 
ting their fatigues, and r newiag the recollection, in 
a far distant and hostile land, of their regretted home. 

The army sometimes halted late at night near de- 
serted villages or hamlets, and we often found our- 
selves, on arriving, in want of every necessary; but 
the soldiers dispersed in all directions, and in less 
than an hour they would transport to their bivouac 
every thing which had been left in the neighbouring 
habitations. 

The large fires, kindled at regular distances from 
each other, were surrounded with all the articles requi- 
site for military cookery. In one place the men were 
hastily raising wooden huts, which they roofed with 
leaves when they could not find straw; in another, 
tents were made, by stretching upon four stakes the 
various stuffs which had been found in the deserted 
houses. Here and there lay scattered over the ground 
the skins of the sheep which had been recently 
slaughtered, guitars, earthen jugs, skins of wine, 
monks' frocks, clothing of every shape and of evtry 
colour; yonder lay some horsemen, sleeping in arms 
by the side of their horses, — further on were soldiers 
of the infantry, disguised in women's clothes, dan- 



31 

cing amidst their stacks of arms, to the sound of 
discordant music. 

Immediately on the departure of the army, the 
peasants came down from the neighbouring heights, 
and sallied, as it were out of the bowels of the earth, 
from the places in which they had concealed them- 
selves; they hastened back to their dwellings. Our 
men could not straggle from the route of the army 
or remain behind the columns, without exposing 
themselves to be assassinated by the mountaineers; 
and we no longer dared, as in Germany, to form in 
various places depots for our sick, or send them 
without escorts to the hospitals. The foot soldiers, 
who were too weak to walk, followed their divisions 
mounted upon asses; they carried their muskets in 
their left hands, and in their right their bayonets by 
way of goads. These peaceful animals had neither 
saddles nor bridles; as in days of yore, the horses of 
the unvanquished Numidians. 

The first of December, we halted for the night at 
a village situated one league north of Guadalaxara. 
The billets had been distributed; we were just 
going to dismiss our men and to disperse through 
the cantonment, when it was announced that some 
of the enemy's soldiers were seen making their es- 
cape at a considerable distance. It appeared difficult 
to overtake them; but two or three of the youngest 
among us made a frolic of pursuing them, having 
first obtained our colonel's permission to do so. I at- 
tached myself particularly to one who was running 



32 

faster than the rest. He had on a green uniform # 
which looked tolerably smart; and this made me lake 
him at a distance for an officer. He soon found that 
he could not escape; he then stopped and waited for 
me on the other side of a ditch, which he sprang 
over with great agility. I thonght at first that he was 
going to fire his piece at me; but when I was within 
twenty paces of him, he dropped his gun, pulled off 
his hat, and said, while making me several profound 
bows in various postures — " Sir, I have the honour 
to salute you; Sir, I am your very humble servant." 
I stopped, as much surprised at his grotesque appear- 
ance, as at hearing him speak French. I tranquillized 
him, by saying that he had nothing to fear. He in- 
formed me that he was a professor of dancing, born 
at Toulouse; that at the time of the levy in mass, 
which took place in Andalusia, he had been put for 
a fortnight in the pillory, to force him to enlist in 
the regiment of Ferdinand the Seventh, of which he 
wore the uniform; a thing, he assured me, inexpres- 
sibly annoying to one of his pacific disposition. I 
ordered him to go to the village where our regiment 
was. We also made prisoner another Frenchman, 
who was the son of one of the principal magistrates 
of Pau in Beam.* 

* Only the latter of these Frenchmen joined our regiment; 
he was furnished with means to make his escape some days 
afterwards. He had not been sent to the depot of prisoners, 
for fear of exposing him to be shot for having been found in 
arms and with the Spanish uniform. 



33 

f. •-Hurried on by the ardour of the chase and by the 
iimpetuosity of my horse, I climbed a hill which was 
before me, then another; I crossed a rapid stream, 
and arrived, after half an hour's hard riding, at a large 
village, which I entered. The inhabitants having 
seen me approach, were apprehensive that I was fol- 
lowed by a numerous troop. The alarm was imme- 
diately spread among them, and they had all taken 
refuge in their houses, where they were busy in bar- 
ricading their doors, preparing, according to custom, 
to make their escape over the walls of thtir back 
yards; but seeing that I was alone, they by degrees 
came out of their dwellings, and joined me on the 
market place, where I had halted. I heard some of 
the f^men repeat with energy the word matar; as I 
did not then understand Spanihh, I thought that this 
was an expression of surprise at seeing a stranger; I 
afterwards learnt that it meant to kill. The Spaniards 
were not as docile as the inhabitants of the plains of 
Germany, where a single French soldier gave law to 
a whole village. When I saw the crowd increasing, 
and the agitation considerable, I began to suspect 
that they intended to make me prisoner, and deliver 
me up to the enemy. I clapt spurs to my horse, and 
posted myself on a hillock, whither the men and 
even the women soon followed me; I then leapt my 
horse backwards and forwards over a low wall and 
ditch which were behind me, to show them that I 
was not afraid of them, and could make my escape 
whenever I thought proper. Attracted by curiosity 

E 



34 

(for this was the first time since we had crossed 
the Ebro, that I had seen a village not abandoned 
by its inhabitants, and by the females particularly) 
I returned to the hillock where I had first stop- 
ped; I made signs with my scabbard to the people, 
who were again advancing towards me, not to come 
within ten steps, and I tried to make them under- 
stand that my horse wanted some provender. The 
inhabitants,^ wrapped in their large cloaks, looked at 
me in silence with a sort of astonishment, preserving 
however in their looks and demeanour, the gravity 
and dignity which characterize the Castilians of all 
ages and classes; they seemed to hold in utter con- 
tempt a stranger who was unacquainted with their lan- 
guage. 

Unable to make myself understood by signs, I 
tried some words of Latin; this language was often 
useful to us in Spain, in conversing with the priests, 
who generally speak it tolerably well. A young ec- 
clesiastic left the crowd, and returned a few minutes 
afterwards with the village school- master; the latter 
was so well pleased at holding forth in Latin, and in 
explaining to me how he had attained such a height 
of science, that he procured fi)r me every thing I 
wanted, and I left them soon afterwards. When our 
regiment passed through this village the next morn- 
ing, it was completely deserted. I lost my way in 
the dark in returning to our cantonment, and joined 
my comrades only at midnight. 

The following day, 2d of December, we cantoned 



35 

in the neighbourhood of Alcala de Henares; we met 
a squadron of Polish lancers, whom marshal Bessieres 
had sent from Sant Augustin, to reconnoitre near 
Guadalaxara, We learnt from them that the van- 
guard of the army of the center had arrived before 
Madrid; we were now at three leagues distance only 
from that capital. 

The emperor Napoleon had set out, on the 22d 
of November, from Burgos for Aranda, to observe 
and support, if necessary, the movements upon the 
Ebro of bis army of the left, against the Spanish ar- 
mies of the right. On the 30th of November, nine 
days after the affair of Tudela, the emperor had 
marched towards Madrid with the army of the cen- 
ter, by the direct route through the Castilles; he had 
left marshal Soult's corps on the borders of the As- 
turias, to keep in check the fragments of the Span- 
ish army of Gallicia. 

The advance guard of the emperor's army had 
arrived at day-break of the 30th, at the foot of the 
mountain called Somo Sierra. The Puerto, or pas- 
sage of this mountain, was defended by a corps of 
from twelve to fifteen thousand Spaniards, and by a 
battery of sixteen pieces of artillery. Three regiments 
of infantry of the first corps, and six pieces of cannon, 
commenced the attack. The Polish lancers of the 
guard then charged on the main road, and carried at 
once the enemy's batteries. The Spaniards, too weak 
to resist the emperor's army, sought their safety in 
every direction among the rocks. 



36 

^ The emperor passed the night of the 1st of De- 
cember at Sant Augustin. Marshal Ney's corps, to 
"i^hich our regiment was attached, had that same day- 
joined the emperor's army by Guadalaxara and Al- 
cala. 

On the 2d of December in the morning, the empe- 
ror preceded the main body of the army, and arrived, 
with his cavalry only, at the heights in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Spanish capital. Instead of the order 
which is usually preserved at the advanced posts of 
fortified towns, where every event of war is foreseen 
and guarded against, instead of that silence which is 
only interrupted by the low and repeated cry of 
*' all's well," when the centinels stationed around 
the rampart give notice of their mutual vigilance, 
there was heard at Madrid the tolling of the bells of 
its six hundred churches, mingling their sounds with 
the shrill shouts of its multitude, and the rolling of 
innumerable drums. 

The inhabitants of Madrid had thought of defend- 
ing themselves only a few days before the arrival of 
the French, and all their preparations bore the stamp 
of precipitation and inexperience. They had placed 
artillery behind trenches and barricades in some 
places, and in others had raised intrenchments with 
bales of wool and cotton. The houses at the entrance 
of the principal streets were filled with armed men 
placed at the windows, which were guarded with 
mattrasses The Re tiro alone had been fortified with 
some care; it is a royal palace, upon a height which 



37 

commands the city. An aide-de-camp of marshal 
Bessieres went, according to custom, to summon 
Madrid; he was on the point of being torn to pieces 
by the people, when he proposed to them to surren- 
der to the French, and he owed his Ufe to the pro- 
tection of the Spanish troops of the line. 

The emperor Napoleon passed the evening in re- 
connoitering the environs of the city, and in forming 
his plan of attack.* The leading columns of infantry 
having arrived at seven o'clock at night, one brigade 
with four pieces of cannon marched u[)on the suburbs, 
and the light infantry of the 16th regiment, took pos- 
session of the great church yard, after dislodging 
the Spaniards from some houses in the advance. The 
night was employed in placing the artillery, and ma- 
king every preparation for an assault the following 
day. 

A Spanish officer, taken at Somo Sierra, whom 
the prince of Neuchatel sent into Madrid during the 
night, returned some hours afterwards to announce 
that the inhabitants persisted in defending themselves; 
and on the 3d in the morning, the cannonade com- 
menced. 

Thirty pieces of artillery under the orders of ge- 
neral Cenarmont, battered the walls of the Retiro in 
breach, whilst twenty more cannon, belonging to 
the guards, and some light troops made in another 
direction a false attack to divert the enemy's atten- 

* Vide, note Sdr 



38 

tion, and oblige him to divide his forces. The sharp- 
shooters of Villate's division entered the garden of 
the Retire by the breach, and were soon followed by 
the battalion to which they belonged, and in less 
than an hour the four thousand Spanish troops of 
the line, who defended this important position, were 
completely routed; at eleven o'clock our soldiers 
were in possession of the Observatory, the porcelain 
manufactory, the great barracks, and the hotel of 
Medina-Celi. The French, now masters of the Retiro, 
could in a few hours set fire to Madrid. 

The cannonade then ceased; the troops were halt- 
ed at every point, and a third flag of truce was sent 
into the city. It was of importance to the emperor 
to spare the capital of the kingdom, which he intend- 
ed for his brother. One may establish a camp, but 
not a court, upon a heap of ruins. If Madrid had 
been reduced to ashes, it might, by its example, 
have excited a desperate resistance in every other 
city of the kingdom. Its destruction would moreover 
have deprived the French armies of immense re- 
sources. 

At five o'clock in the afternoon, general Morla, 
chief of the military junta, and Don B. Yriarte, de- 
puty from the city, returned with the French flag of 
truce. They were conducted to the prince of Neu- 
chatel's tent. They requested a suspension of hos- 
tilities during the whole of the 4th of December, 
that they might have time to persuade the populace 
to surrender. The emperor reproached them, with 



39 

the greatest apparent violence, with the non-execu- 
tion of the convention of Baylen, and the massacre of 
the French prisoners in Andalusia. He wished by 
this feigned warmth, to frighten the Spanish depu- 
ties, in order that they might on their return commu- 
nicate their terror to the men under their command. 
The emperor was anxious that the surrender of 
Madrid sTiould have the appearance of a voluntary 
submission. It was generally believed that all Spain 
would then follow the example of the capital. 

In the meantime the inhabitants refused to lay 
down their arms, and they continued to fire on the 
French from the windows of the houses which sur- 
round the Prado. We learnt from the prisoners, 
whom we were continually taking, the extent of 
consternation and fury which prevailed in the city. 
Fifty thousand inhabitants in arms and without dis- 
cipline wandered through the streets, requiring tu- 
multuously that orders should be given them to at- 
tack the enemy, and accusing their chiefs of trea- 
chery. The captain-general, Marquis de Castellan, 
and all the officers of rank left Madrid in the night 
with the regular troops and sixteen pieces of cannon. 
On the 4th of December, general Morla and Don 
F. de Vera returned to the prince of Neuchatel's 
tent; and at ten o'clock the French troops took pos- 
. session of Madrid. 

The emperor remained encamped with his guards 
on the height of Chamartin. The very day of the cap- 
ture of Madrid, conformably to his usual practice, 



40 

he fletached numerous parties in all directions, to 
prevent the enemy from recollecting themselves, and 
to profit, after any great event, of the surprise and 
terror which almost always double the forces of the 
victor, and paralyse for a time those of the vanquished. 
Marshal Bessieres pursued, with sixteen squadrons, 
the army of general La Penna, on the road to Va- 
lencia; the same army was pressed at Cuenga, by the 
division of infantry of general Ruffin and the briga^g^ 
of dragoons of general Bordesoult. Marshal Victor's 
corps went to Toledo by Aranjuez. The divisions of 
cavalry of generals Lasalle and Milhaud followed, 
upon Talavera de la Reyna, the fragments of the 
Spanish division which had been driven from Somo 
Sierra, and the troops which had escaped from Ma- 
drid. General La Houssaye entered the Escurial. 

Our regiment had passed the 2d, 3d and 4th of 
December in the environs of Alcala, three leagues 
from Madrid. On the 5th we had orders to be at 
head-quarters, at an early hour, to be reviewed. In 
a few minutes after our arrival at a plain, near the 
castle of Chamartin, the emperor Napoleon suddenly 
made his appearance. He was accompanied by the 
prince of Neuchatel and five or six aides-de-camp, 
who could scarcely keep up with him, such was the 
swiftness with which he rode. All the trumpets 
sounded; the emperor placed himself about a hun- 
dred paces in front of the center of our regiment, 
and asked the colonel for a list of the officers, non- 
commissioned officers and privates, who had deserv- 



41 

ed military distinctions. The colonel called them out 
immediately by name. The emperor spoke familiarly 
M'ith some of the privates who were presented to 
him; then addressing himself to the general who 
commanded the brigade to which we were attachedj 
he asked him with rapidity two or three short queS" 
tions; the general having begun to answer in a dif» 
fuse manner, the emperor turned his horse, and his 
departure was as unexpected and precipitate as had 
been his arrival. 

After the review, we set out for Madrid. A me- 
lancholy silence had succeeded to the tumultuous 
and noisy agitation which prevailed the day before 
within and without the walls of that city. The 
streets through which we entered were drserted, and . 
the numerous shops of the provision merchants were 
not yet re-established in the public squares. The 
water-carriers were the only inhabitants who had not 
interrupted their accustomed employment. They 
walked about, crying in the nasal drawling accent 
peculiar to their Gallician mountains: " Quien quiere 
aguaP^ Who wants water? As nobody presented 
himself to buy, the aguador would answer himself 
now and then in a melancholy tone; '■'• Dios que la da,^^ 
God who gives it — and he would recommence his 
cry. • . 

In advancing towards the center of Madrid, we 
beheld some groupes of Spaniards who were stand- 
ing, wrapped in their great cloaks, at the corners of 
a square, where they were in the habit heretofore of 

F 



42 

assembling in great numbers; they looked at us with 
a mournful and desponding air; their national pride 
was so great, that they could scarcely persuade 
themselves that any but Spanish soldiers could have 
conquered Spaniards. When they chanced to see in 
our ranks any of the horses which had been captur- 
ed from the enemy's cavalry by our hussars, they 
recognized them at once by their paces, and would 
awake from their stupor, saying to each other; " este 
cavallo es espahol^'''' this is a Spanish horse^ — as if 
this had been the sole cause of our success. 

We merely marched through Madrid; our regi- 
ment cantoned itself during sixteen days at Cevolla, 
not far from the banks of the Tagus,. in the direction 
of Talavera, and then returned, on the 19th Decem- 
ber, to make part of the garrison of Madrid. The 
inhabitants of the capital and its neighbourhood had 
recovered from their excessive astonishment. They 
had by degrees become accustomed to see the 
French. The army preserved the severest discipline, 
and tranquillity prevailed, at least in appearance, as 
in a time of profound peace. 

One is surprised on entering Madrid in the morn- 
ing by the gate of Toledo and the square de la 
Cevada, where the market is held, at the tumultu- 
ous concourse of country people, in different cos- 
tumes, who are arriving, setting out, moving back- 
wards and forwards. Here a Castilian raises with an 
air of dignity the foids of his large cloak, like a Ro. 
man senator wrapped in his toga. There a drover 



43 

from La Mancha, with a long goad in his hand, is 
covered with a capotte of buffalo skin, shaped like 
the tunic of the ancient Goths and Roman soldiers. 
Farther on you will see men, whose hair are enclosed 
in long silken nets; others wear a sort of short brov\'n 
vest, slashed with blue and red, and which recals to 
mind the Moorish garments. Those who have the 
latter dress come from Andalusia; you know them 
by their sharp black eyes, their expressive and ani- 
mated look, their rapid mode of speaking. Women, 
stationed at the corners of the streets and squares, 
are busy cooking victuals for all these people, who 
are only temporarily in the city. 

You behold long files of mules arriving, laden 
with skins of wine and oil, or else numerous bands 
of asses conducted by a single man, who is. always 
speaking to them. You will also meet carriages 
drawn by eight or ten mules, adorned with bells, and 
which a single coachman drives with surprising ad- 
dress, either at a trot or a gallop, without reins, go- 
verning them by his voice alone, with loud and 
savage cries. A long and sharp whistle from the 
driver, suffices to slop all these mules at the same 
instant. On seeing their slim legs, their lofty stature, 
their elevated heads and spirited looks, one might 
mistake them for stags or elks. The clamours of the 
wagoners and muleteers, the tolling of the church 
bells, which are never silent,- the sight of these men 
dressed in so many different ways, their vivacity and 
activity manifested by expressive gestures or by 



44 

shouts in a sonorous language which was unknown 
to us, their manners so different from ours, gave to 
the capital of Spain an appearance altogether extra- 
ordinary, especially in the eyes of men lately arrived 
from the north of Europe, where all the business of 
life is carried on in silence. We were the more 
struck with what we beheld, as Madrid was the first 
great town we had found inhabited since our en- 
trance into Spain. 

. At the hour of the Siesta, particularly in summer, 
during the heat of the day, every noise was suspend- 
ed, the whole city was wrapped in sleep, and there 
was no longer any thing heard in the streets but the 
tramping of some of our patroles of cavalry, or the 
drum of some detachment of foot, which was re- 
lieving its s^^ntries. The same French drum had 
perhaps served heretofore to beat the march and the 
charge in Alexandria, Cairo, Rome, and in almost 
every town of Europe, from Konigsberg in Prussia 
to Madrid, where we now were. 

Our regiment remained almost a month in the 
capital of Spain. I was lodged at an old gentleman's, 
of distinguished rank, who lived alone with his 
daughter. He used to go regularly twice in each 
day to church, and once a-day to tht square del Sol 
16 hear the news. He would sit down, on returning 
home, in a saloon where he passed the whole day 
doing nothing. Sometimes he lii^hted his cigar, 
and dissipated the weariness of thought by smoking; 
he rarely opened his lips; I never saw him laugh; 



45 

he would only exclaim, every half hour, with a deep 
sigh: *' Ay Jesus!^"* his daughter uttered the same 
words in response, and they would both resume their 
accustomed silence. A priest who was the spiritual 
director of the family, came every day to visit my 
landlord, with as much assiduity as a physician ma- 
nifests for his patients. He wore a light coloured 
wig, to conceal his priest's tonsure, and was dressed 
like an ordinary citizen, pretending that he durst not 
wear his clerical dress, for fear of having his throat 
cut by our soldiers; this useless disguise had no 
other obj -ct than to encrease the violent irritation 
which existed agjainst the French. 

Although Madrid appeared perfectly tranquil, 
our regiment always held itself in readiness to mount, 
and the horses remained constantly saddled, as if we 
had been at the advance posts in presence of an ene- 
my. Eleven hundred determined Spaniards were, it 
w^as said, concealed in the town since the capitula- 
tion, preparing to excite the inhabitants to insur- 
rection, and to put to death all the French, on the 
first favourable opportunity. 

We experienced, amidst the shouts of victory 
which were echoed by our bulletins, a confused 
sense of uncertainty respecting the advantages which 
we had gained; it seemed as if we had conquered 
upon a volcano. The emperor did not make his 
triumphal entrance into Madrid as in the other capi- 
tals of Europe; it was said that he was prevented by 
forms of etiquette, relative to his brother Joseph, 



whom he already regarded as a foreign sovereign. 
From the heights of Chamartin, where he was en- 
camped with his guards, he issued daily decrees 
for the government of Spain, in expectation of the 
approaching submission of the whole kingdom. 

The thundering proclamations of the emperor Na- 
poleon announced his triumphs to startled Europe, 
and threatened terrible consequences to those parts 
of the peninsula which yet resisted. The provinces 
however did not seem disposed to make separate 
proposals to soften the implacable conqueror, and to 
divert the fatal blow which menaced them. Nobody 
presented himself to lay at the feet of Napoleon, to- 
gether with the exacted tribute, those obsequious 
eulogiums to which other nations had accustomed 
him. The deputations from Madrid, and some local 
magistrates, who were forced to come by our own 
troops^ alone offered at the imperial quarters at Cha- 
martin, a homage dictated by fear. Twelve hundred 
heads of families, chosen in Madrid itself, were sum- 
moned to swear fidelity to Joseph; but the priests 
themselves, who administered the oath, had long 
before, it was said, absolved them from any obli- 
gations they might contract with their conquerors. 

The reduction of the religious orders and the abo- 
lition of the inquisition, which had been proclaimed 
by the French authorities, far from causing us to be 
viewed as deliverers, increased the hatred borne to 
us by the priesthood and its numberless partisans. 



47 

The monks of every order, who had been driven 
from their convents, spread themselves over the 
country, and everywhere preached against us. Co- 
vering, with the mask of religious zeal, the resent- 
ment which they felt at being despoiled of their 
wealth, they excited the people to revenge by all 
possible means. The priests declared loudly that the 
inquisition had been established against foreigners 
only; that without the inquisition, all religious prin- 
ciple would have been long ago destroyed in Spain, 
as it had been for twenty years past in France. 

The inquisition had been greatly modified within 
the last century. It no longer inspired the Spaniards 
with fear; and many enlightened persons had even 
adopted the opinion that it was necessary, under so 
weak a government, as the organ of restraining the 
people, and of checking the power of the inferior 
clergy. The poor complained of not knowing where 
to seek, in future years of scarcity, the daily nourish- 
ment which they formerly received at the doors of 
the convents. 

This religious people could not comprehend how 
institutions which they believed to have existed for 
ever, could cease to be; and in those times of dis- 
tress, every change operated by the hands of their 
enemies, appeared to them an act of impiety. 

A few days after the capture of Madrid, while our 
regiment was yet cantoned on the Tagus, I was or- 
dered to carry to marshal Lefevre an open despatch 
from general Lasalle, who was in advance of us at 



Talavera. The marshal was to read the despatchj 
and then forward it to the piince of Neuchatel. I 
met at sun-set marshal Lefevre at Maqu6da, as he 
was arriving from Casa Rubios; in order to save his 
aides-de-camp some fatigue, he ordered me to con- 
tinue my journey and to carry in person the letters, 
with which I was charged, to the imperial head-quar- 
ters. Being obliged to ride post, 1 left my horse at 
Maqu6da, and mounted a mule which the adjutant- 
general obliged the alcade of the place to furnish. 

I was soon on my way, in a very dark night; a 
Spanish peasant, who was to serve a-s my guide, 
preceded me, mounted on the mule which matched 
mine. When we had travelled about a league, my 
guide tumbled off, and his mule galloped away, 
to return, I suppose, to its village. I thought that 
the countryman, hurt by his fall, had fainted, and I 
dismounted for the purpose of assisting him. I look- 
ed in vain for him at the spot where I had heard him 
fall; he had slipped into some neighbouring bushes, 
and had disappeared. I remounted my mule, not 
well knowing how I should find my way. The res- 
tive animal missing its companion, would neither go 
forwards nor backwards. The more I spurred, the 
more it kicked; my blows, my oaths, my threats in 
French had no effect but that of making it more 
stubborn. I did not know its name; I was then igno- 
rant that every mule in Spain has one, and that to 
make it travel, I should have said in Spanish — " go, 
mule — go, captain — go, Aragonese, &c." Having 



49 

dismounted to tighten my saddle-girth the impatient 
beast jumped aside, and directed a kick at my breast 
which laid me on the ground, and then ran oft' by an 
adjoining path. When I recovered from my fall, I set 
out in pursuit with all my speed, guided by the noise 
of my stirrups, which, the saddle having turned, 
dragged upon the stones. After running about half a 
league, 1 found the saddle, the mule having managed 
to get rid of it. I took it up on my back, and soon 
afterwards entered a large village, where the advance 
of one of marshal Leievre's brigades had just arrived. 
I procured a horse from the alcade, and resumed my 
journey, taking good care to keep always close to 
my guide. 

There was no French guard at the village where I 
changed horses the second time. The post-master 
opened the door for me himself; he was a stout dry- 
looking old man. He called up a postilion, and told 
him to saddle an aged horse which could scarcely 
stand; its fore legs were bent like a bow. I raised my 
voice and began to threaten the post- master, pointing 
out at the same time the horse which I chose to 
take. The old fellow was not in the least terrified; 
he took me by the hand with a tranquillity which 
immediately calmed my anger, and desiring me not 
to make a noise, he showed me at the other end of 
the stable, thirty or forty peasants who were sleeping 
on the straw. I took his advice and mounted the 
wretchtd hack withoCit uttering a word, surprised 
at the different sentiments which were indicated by 

G 



50 

this singular adventure, and reflecting on the num- 
berless difficulties which the hatred of the Spaniards 
presented to us, notwithstanding all our victories. 

I arrived at Chamartin an hour after night-fall. 
The prince of Neuchatel was waked by one of his 
aides; I delivered my letters, and was sent back the 
same evening at eleven o'clock, to my corps with 
new despatches for marshal Victor. I reached Aran- 
juez in the morning; the commandant of the place 
advised me to wait for a detachment which was 
about to set out for Toledo. The director of the 
posts, belonging to the first corps, had been massa- 
cred ihe day before on the road, in consequence of 
having preceded his escort only by a few minutes. 
The orders which 1 was carrying, I had been in- 
formed, were important, and I continued my journey 
on a little horse which had been pressed for my use. 
Being alone, I was obliged to serve as my own van, 
flank, and rear-guard, riding to the top of every hill 
at full speed, and looking sharply about me in every 
direction for fear of a surprise. 

The wild horses of the royal haras, mingled with 
stags and deer, fled at my approach in troops of fifty 
or sixty. When I had ridden some leagues beyond 
Aranjuez, I saw at a distance two Spanish peasants, 
who had just bound a French soldier, whom they 
were dragging into the bushes to cut his throat. I 
advanced on them at full speed, and was fortunately 
in time to rescue the poor prisoner; he was an infan- 
try soldier, who had come out of the hospital at 



51 

Aranjuez the day before; overcome by lassitude, he 
had seated himself for a few moments, while his 
comrades continued their march. I escorted him to 
his detachment, which had halted at no great distance, 
and proceeded on my way. 

Nothing could be more horrid than the sight which 
afterwards presented itself to me. At every step I 
found the mutilated bodies of Frenchmen, murdered 
the preceding days, and bloody scraps of clothing 
scattered here and there. Recent marks on the dust 
indicated the struggles which some of these unhappy 
men had made, and the long tortures which they 
must have endured before they expired. The brass 
plates of their caps alone showed that they had been 
soldiers. The men, who thus attacked the French 
on the road to Toledo, were the keepers of tlie royal 
haras, united with peasants who had abandoned their 
villages; they had acquired ferocious habits in the 
wandering life to which they were now accustomed. 
I delivered my despatches to marshal Victor, and 
returned to my regiment on the day when it entered 
Madrid, where it was to remain in garrison. 

The Spaniards of the plains of Castille were already 
recovering from the panic caused by our arrival. 
The inhabitants of the places we occupied had re- 
tired into the woods and mountains with their wives 
and children; they watched our motions and lay in 
ambush near the main roads, in order to intercept 
our couriers, and to fall unexpectedly on such small 
detachments as they thought themselves able to cope 



52 

with. Every day wc had accounts of disasters hap- 
pening to the parties which were left behind, to keep 
up our communications. Wherever we established 
posts, consisting of a dozen or fifteen men, as had 
been the practice in our German wars, they were 
sure to be cut off. 

The Spanish Junta had retired to Merida, and 
from thence to Seville. It had sent orders to the 
alcades and curates, even those residing in the towns 
held by us, to invite the militia to return to their 
respective corps; these men travelled at night and 
through by-roads, to avoid meeting with our troops. 
Thus the dispersed armies of the Spaniards con- 
tinually arose from their defeats with inconceiva- 
ble rapidity. When the army of Castanos arrived 
at Cuenga after having been beaten at Tudela, it 
was reduced to nine thousand infantry and two thou- 
sand cavalry; one month afterwards, at the affair of 
Ucl6s, the same army was more than twenty-five 
thousand strong. After the defeat of General Blake 
at Espinosa, the marquis de la Romana had with 
much difficulty assembled five thousand soldiers in 
Gallicia; in the beginning of December he had col- 
lected twenty-two thousand men near the city of 
Leon. 

Although the Spanish Junta formed but a feeble 
and ill-assorted administration, it had great influence 
when it seconded the movement which the nation 
had commenced of its own accord; and this move- 
ment was the more lasting as it was entirely volun- 



53 

tary. The Spanish generals, like the government, had 
no authority except when they acted in conformity 
with the opinion of those under their command. 
They could neither restrain their soldiers after suc- 
cess, nor keep them together after discomfiture; 
these undisciplined bands hurried their chiefs with 
them, whether to victory or in flight. The pride of 
the Spaniards was so great, that they never would 
ascribe their defeats to want of experience, or to 
the military superiority of their adversaries; when 
they were beaten, they accused their commanders of 
treachery. General San Juan was hanged by his sol- 
diers at Talavera; general La Peiia was dismissed 
by the army of Andalusia, and the duke Del Infan- 
tado was obliged to accept, at CuenQa, the command 
of the forces.* 

The Spaniards were a brave and religious, but 
not a military people; they detested and despised 
whatever belonged to regular troops. In consequence 
they were in want of good ofiicers, non-commissioned 
officers, and of every thing which constitutes a well- 
regulated army. They considered the present war as 
a religious crusade against the French, in defence of 
their country and of their king; a red ribbon with the 
inscription, " vincer o morir pro patria et pro Ferdu 
nando septimOy^^ was the only military decoration of 
the greater number of these citizen-soldiers. On the 
first summons, the men of all the provinces assembled 

* Vid. note 4. 



54 

almost naked, in those great crowds which they called 
their armies; and their ardour for victory made them 
endure, with wonderful patience, privations which 
the severest discipline could not have imposed on re- 
gular troops. The people of the provinces manifested 
on all occasions the utmost incredulity respecting 
the advantages which we gained. No Spaniard would 
believe in the defeat of Spain, and acknowledge her 
vanquished. This sentiment, which pervaded every 
breast, rendered the nation invincible, in spite of the 
disasters and losses which attended their armies. 

The English had entered Spain towards the close 
of the year 1808. Thirteen thousand soldiers, under 
general Sir D, Baird, had landed at Coruiia on the 
14th of October, and had advanced to Astorga by 
the way of Lugo.* Another army of twenty-one 
thousand men, under general Moore, commander in 
chief of the British forces, had set out from Lisbon 
the 27th of the same month; the latter had arrived in 
Estremadura by the way of Almeida, Ciudad-Rodri- 
go, Alcantara and Merida. The division which ad- 
vanced by M6rida, had reached the Escurial on the 
22d November. All the British troops in the penin- 
sula were to be united at Salamanca and Valladolid, 
to reinforce the central Spanish army before Burgos. 
When the latter was dispersed, as well as that of 
general Blake in the Asturias, Sir David Baird re- 
treated from Astorga to Villa Franca; and some time 

* Vide Note 5. 



55 

afterwards, when the French marched upon Madrid 
after the affair of Tudela, general Moore recalled the 
English corps which had reached the Escurial, and 
concentrated his forces near Salamanca. The British 
army remained nearly a month at Villa Franca and 
Salamanca, uncertain what to do; they could neither 
advance upon the immense forces of the French, nor 
retreat, for fear of discouraging the people of Spain, 
and dispiriting the national ardour, which existed 
notwithstanding so many misfortunes. 

There was a momentary misunderstanding be- 
tween the English and Spaniards, which interfered 
with the concert of their military operations. The 
Spaniards, forgetting that the English were only 
auxiliaries in their quarrel, reproached them with 
the slowness of their first marches, and soon after- 
wards with their immobility. The English com- 
mander in his turn accused the Spaniards of having 
constantly concealed from him their real situation 
and their defeats, and of having always exaggerated 
the extent of their means of resistance. He was de- 
ceived, as well as the chief of the French, respecting 
the Spanish character, and continually mistook for 
weakness, all that patriotism induces men to do, and 
to say, when they are without military resources, 
but strong in their love of country. Such men are 
unconquerable precisely because they exaggerate 
their resources, without being conscious that they 
do so. 

The Spaniards went so far as to persuade them- 



56 

selves that the English intended to abandon them to 
their fate. The French also believed, in conformity 
with the general opinion, that the English no longer 
thought but of re-embarking at Lisbon and Coruna; 
they even sent marshal Lefevre in advance of Tala- 
vera towards Badajos, to threaten general Moore's 
communications and oblige him to return down the 
Tagus. General Soult, who had remained on the 
frontiers of the kingdom of Leon, was preparing to 
enter Gallicia; he was about to be reinforced by the 
corps of general Junot, who was on his march from 
France and advancing upon Burgos. 

During these occurrences news was brought on 
the 21st of December to head-quarters at Chamartin, 
that one of general Franceschi's posts had been sur- 
prised, in the night between the 12th and 13th, at 
Rueda, and that parties of English cavalry had been 
scouring the country, up to the very gates of Val- 
ladolid. 

These advanced parties belonged to the army 
under general Moore, who had left Salamanca on the 
13th December, and had crossed the Duero to form 
a junction with the 13,000 men under general Baird; 
their intention was to make, with the troops under 
the marquis de la Romana, a combined attack on 
general Soult, who was occupying, with 15,000 
men, the small towns of Guarda, Saldanas and Sa- 
hagun, on the little river Cea. On the 21st a brigade 
of English cavalry, under general Paget, attacked 



57 

and defeated a regiment of French dragoons which 
had been left by general Soult at Sahagun. 

The emperor Napoleon, informed of this move- 
ment of the English, set out on the 2 2d from Ma- 
drid, with his guards and marshal Ney's corps, to 
cut oJBP their retreat upon Coruna. He arrived, the 
23d, at Villa- Castin, the 25th at Tordesillas, the 
27th at Medina de Rio-Seco, and the 29th of Decem- 
ber in the morning, his vanguard, composed of three 
squadrons of mounted chasseurs under general Le- 
fevre, appeared before Benevente, where lay the 
English army. 

General Lefevre, finding the bridge upon the 
Esla destroyed, forded that river and drove the 
EngHsh advanced posts back to the gates of the 
town. This officer, in the ardour of pursuit, neglect- 
ed to rally his men and to reconnoitre in his front; 
he was soon engaged with the enemy's rear-guard. 
The French chasseurs were forced to recross the 
Esla; and sixty men wounded or disnvounted, among 
whom was the general, fell into the hands of the 
English. The chasseurs formed on die opposite bank 
of the river, and were preparing to make a desperate 
charge to rescue their chief, when the English 
brought two pieces of light artillery rapidly up to 
the ruined bridge and poured a shower of grape shot 
on the French squadrons, which obliged them to re- 
treat. 

The Anglo-Spanish armies had been informed of 
the emperor Napoleon's march at the very moment 

H 



58 

when they were making ready to attack marshal 
Soult at the village of Carion; they had retreated 
hastily, as early as the 24th, upon Astorga and Bene- 
venle, by the routes of Mayorga, Valencia and 
Mancilla. They would probably have been cut off 
from the defilees of Gallicia, if the French had not 
been delayed in their progress by the snow, which 
had lately fallen in the Sierra de Guadarama, and by 
the torrents which had overflowed their banks. 

The emperor arrived on the 30th December at Be- 
nevente; he did not proceed beyond Astorga, returned 
the 7th of January to Valladolid with his guards, and 
a few days afterwards he was in France, making 
preparations to march against Austria. 

Marshal Ney remained at Astorga, to guard the 
passes of Gallicia, and to organize the country; mar- 
shal Soult continued in pursuit of general Moore's 
army, in the direction of Coruiia. The country, 
which the English had left behind them, was entirely 
destroyed; marshal Soult's troops were obliged to 
seek provisions every evening at great distances from 
the main road, which circumstance encreased their 
fatigue and considerably retarded their march. The 
advance of marshal Soult's corps, however, overtook 
at Villa- Franca and afterwards at Lugo, the enemy's 
reserve; but the French were not in sufficient force 
to molest them. In an engagement which took place 
before the latter of these towns, we lost general Col- 
bert, of the cavalry. 

On the 16th the English were forced to give battle 



59 

before Coruiia, previously to embarking; the affair 
was bloody and well contested. The French at first 
gained ground on the enemy; but the English reco- 
vered towards the end of the day the strong position, 
which they had occupied in order to cover the anchor- 
age of their fleet, and embarked in the night between 
the 16th and 17th. General Moore was struck by a 
cannon-ball during the battle, at the moment that he 
was leading back to the charge a corps which had 
given way. 

The marquis de la Romana's army had dispersed 
itself in the mountains west of Astorga. The town 
of Coruna, surrounded with fortifications, was de- 
fended by its citizens, and capitulated only on the 
20th. The British troops suffered, during their re- 
treat, all the evils to which an army is exposed when 
pursued with ardour, and when the soldiery is exas- 
perated by excessive fatigue. Without having been 
on any occasion worsted in battle, they lost more 
than ten thousand men, their military chest, much 
baggage, and almost all their cavalry horses. 

It is not easy to understand what were the mo- 
tives which induced Sir John Moore to risk the de- 
struction of his whole army, by undertaking against 
marshal Soult's corps an expedition of which the 
result must, in every event, have been very un- 
certain; as the marshal had it in his power to retreat 
upon Burgos and to be reinforced by general Junot. 
By moving upon Saldanas, general Moore gave the 
emperor Napoleon, who was preparing to return to 



60 

France, an opportunity of attacking him with all his 
forces united. 

The English commander might have moved from 
Salamanca, behind the bridge of Almaraz upon the 
Tagus, to an almost impregnable position, and have 
re- organized the Spanish armies; this was what the 
French were apprt hensive of. He ought, at any rate, 
after leaving Salamanca, to have retreated upon Lis- 
bon instead of Coruna, in order to move upon the 
shortest line, and to give marshals Lefevre and Soult 
a lons;er line of communication to guard, and thus to 
weaken them by the necessity of leaving numerous 
detachments behind them. The troops of La Romana, 
and the peasants of Gallicia and Portugal, would, in 
consequence, have had many opportunities of carry- 
ing on their partizan warfare against the French. This 
last plan of operations has been subsequently exe- 
cuted with great success, by Sir Arthur Wellesley. 

It is said that general Moore was deceived by 
false reports, and that he was induced, contrary to his 
own judgment, and against his wishes, to break 
through the rules of military science on this occasion.* 
After all, it is easy to judge of things after the event; 
the difficulty, in every enterprise, consists in calcu- 
lating the probable result. 

Whilst marshal Soult's corps was expelling the Bri- 
tish from Gallicia, the Spanish army of Andalusia was 
making, in the vicinity of Cuenga, various move- 

* Vide, note 6. 



61 

ments which seemed to threaten Madrid. Marshal 
Victor left Toledo on the 10th of January, with the 
first corps, to oppose this army, which was com- 
manded by the duke del Infantado. 

The first corps was some days in the neighbour- 
hood of Ocana, advancing slowly, without receiving 
any intelligence of the enemy. Whether by chance, 
or from ignorance of the country, the French divi- 
sions found themselves, on the morning of the 13th, 
so entangled among those of the Spaniards, that 
without any intention of turning them, the latter 
thought themselves surrounded. 

Villate's division was the first that encountered 
part of the Spanish army, drawn up in order of battle 
on the summit of an elevated and steep hill. The 
Spaniards confided in the strength of their position 
rather than in the experience of their troops, which 
consisted principally of new levies. When they be- 
held the intrepidity and coolness with which the 
French were climbing, with supported arms, the 
rocks which interposed between them, they broke 
their ranks after a single discharge, and met in 
their flight, near Alcazar, Ruffin's division, which 
in looking for the enemy had, without being aware 
of it, gotten into their rear. Several thousand Spa- 
niards were then forced to lay down their arms; 
a panic seized their whole army, and the different 
corps which composed it precipitated themselves 
blindly in every direction. Some of the enemy's co- 
lumns, which were endeavouring to make their es- 



62 

cape, wandered into the park of artillery under general 
Cenarmont, where they were received with showers 
of grape-shot v/hich obliged them to alter their di- 
rection. One French field-piece, of which the horses 
were excessively fatigued, was met by the Spanish 
cavalry; the latter made way for it, and filed off in si- 
lence by the sides of the road. The French made up- 
wards of ten thousand prisoners, and took forty pieces 
of cannon which the Spaniards had abandoned. If 
the division of dragoons under general Latour-Mau- 
bourg had not been too much fatigued to pursue the 
enemy, the whole Spanish army must have fallen 
into our hands. 

On the 13th of January, the day when the affair 
of Ucles took place, our regiment left Madrid to 
join the first corps. The 14th we slept at Ocana; 
the 15th, in the morning, we met at three leagues 
distance from that place, the Spanish prisoners 
coming from Ucles, and on their way to Madrid. 
Many of these unfortunate fellows fell down, worn 
out by fatigue; others died from want of sustenance; 
when they could no longer stand on their legs, they 
were shot without mercy. This sanguinary order 
had been given in return for the Spaniards hanging 
all the French whom they took. Such violent mea- 
sures adopted against disarmed enemies, whose weak- 
ness itself ought to have protected them, could by 
no means be justified under the necessity of repri- 
sals; with impolicy equal to their cruelty, the framers 
of such orders defeated the great object of victory, 



63 

which was the lasting submission of the vanquish- 
ed. They had indeed the effect of preventing the 
Spanish peasants from joining their armies, but 
the consequence was, that a war of ambuscade suc- 
ceeded one of regular battles, (in the latter of which 
our eminent superiority in tactics always insured 
victory,) and took away the chance of subduing by 
mildness, men already half prepared, by military 
discipline, to support the curb of authority. The 
French, with only four hundred thousand men, were 
about to find themselves engaged in conflict against 
twelve millions of human beings, animated by hatred, 
despair, and vengeance. 

One of these Spaniards particularly attracted our 
attention; he was stretched upon his back, mortally 
wounded; his long black mustachios, mingled with 
some grey hairs, and his uniform, showed him to be 
an old soldier; he uttered only inarticulate sounds, 
whilst invoking the holy virgin and the saints. We 
endeavoured to restore him to life by making him 
swallow some brandy, but he expired a few minutes 
afterwards. 

Nothing is more shocking than to follow, at some 
distance, the progress of a victorious army. As we 
had had no share in the success of our comrades, 
who had just beaten the enemy before us, no remem- 
brance of our own dangers, fatigues, and sufferings 
served to allay the horror of the sights which pre- 
sented themselves before us at every step. We were 
traversing a deserted and plundered country, we 



64 

lodged pell-mell with the dead and the wounded, 
who dragged themselves through the mud to the 
houses in the neighbourhood of the action, there to 
die without assistance. 

We joined the army at Cuenga, and took up, for 
some days, cantonments near San Clemente and at 
Belmonte. We were waiting for our artillery, which 
could travel with the utmost difficulty only from one 
to two leagues in a day. The winter rains had ren- 
dered the roads so heavy, that it was often necessary 
to join several sets of horses together to drag one 
single piece. We afterwards traversed the native 
country of Don Quixote on our way to Consuegra 
and Madrilejos. El Toboso exactly resembles the 
description given of it by Cervantes, in his immortal 
history of the hero of La Mancha. If this imaginary 
personage was not, in real life, of great service to 
widows and orphans, his memory, at least, protected 
from the disasters of war the supposed birth-place of 
his Dulcinea. When our soldiers saw a woman at a 
window, they would exclaim with bursts of laugh- 
ter,-— " there's Dulcinea." Their gaiety encouraged 
the inhabitants; far from making their escape, as was 
usually the case, at first sight of our advanced guards, 
they assembled to see us pass. The jokes about 
Dulcinea and Don Quixote served as a common 
topic of conversation between our men and the 
inhabitants of El Toboso; and the French, being 
kindly received, treated in turn their hosts with gen- 
tleness. 



65 

We remained more than a month cantoned in La 
Mancha. Whether we were lodged in houses, or 
bivouacked in the fields, our mode of living was the 
same; only that instead of going from one house to 
another we used to leave our own fires to visit those 
of our comrades. There we passed the long nights in 
drinking, or talking over the events of the present 
war, or else in hearing the recital of former cam- 
paigns. Sometimes a horse, uneasy with the chillness 
of night, would tear up the picket to which he was 
tied, and approaching the fire would quietly warm 
his nostrils; as if this old servant meant to remind us, 
that he too had been at the battle which was the sub- 
ject of discourse. 

The life of alternate repose and agitation which 
we led, had its charms as well as its hardships. 
When we were in presence of the enemy, we saw, 
at almost every hour of the day, detachments march- 
ing off and others returning, bringing with them news, 
after a long absence, from the furthest parts of Spain, 
When we received orders to be in readiness to 
mount our horses, it was a chance whether we should 
immediately be marched to France, to Germany, 
to the extremities of Europe, or only on a short 
expedition. When we haked in any place, it was 
uncertain whether we should remain there a few 
hours only, or for several months. The longest and 
most monotonous expectation was borne without 
impatience, because we had always the prospect of 
some unforeseen adventure. We were frequently 

I 



66 

destitute of all the necessaries of life; but we conso- 
led ourselves under our privations, by the hope of 
an approaching change. When we found ourselves 
in possession of abundance, we hastened to enjoy it; 
we lived as fast as we could; we did every thini^ fast, 
because we knew that nothing was to be of long 
duration. When the roar of cannon announced an 
approaching attack on the enemy's lines, and the 
different regiments were moving rapidly to the scene 
of action, brothers and friends, serving in different 
corps, would recognize each other, and stop for a 
moment to bid a hasty farewell; their swords would 
jingle against each other, their plumes cross as they 
embraced, and they promptly resumed their places 
in the ranks. 

The habit of encountering dangers caused death 
to be regarded as one of the most ordinary circum- 
stances of life. Our wounded companions excited 
sympathy; but when they had ceased to live, an in- 
difference, approaching to irony, was manifested. 
When the soldiers recognized, as they went along, 
one of their comrades lying among the dead, they 
would say, " such a-one wants nothing now, he will 
never beat his horse again, he can't get drunk any 
more," or make other similar observations, which 
showed, in those who uttered them, a stoical con- 
tempt of existence; — such were the funeral orations 
pronounced over those of our warriors who perished 
in batde. 

The different descriptions of troops which compo- 



67 

sed our army, the cavalry and infantry especially, 
differed much in their habits and manners. The foot 
soldier, having nothing to care for but himself and 
his musket, was an egotist, slept much and talked 
more. Constrained, when in the field, by the dread 
of disgrace, to march as long as he had life, he was 
without pity in the occurrences of war, and when op- 
portunity offered itself, made others suffer as he had 
himself suffered. He would reason, and sometimes 
insolently, with his officers; but amidst -the hardships 
which he endured, a jest would bring him back to 
his duty, and restore his good humour. He forgot 
every dissatisfaction, as soon as a gun of the enemy 
was fired. 

The hussars and chasseurs were generally accused 
of being plunderers, prodigal, fond of drinking, and 
apt to think every thing permitted them when in 
presence of the enemy. Accustomed to sleep, as it 
were, with one eye open, to patrole the line of march 
in advance of the army, to guard against the ambush 
of the enemy, to guess at the slightest track, to 
search ravines, to see like the eagle at a distance in 
the plains, they necessarily acquired an extraordinary 
degree of mental acuteness and habits of indepen- 
dence. Nevertheless, they were always silent and 
submissive before their officers, from the fear of be- 
ing deprived of their horses. 

Smoking incessantly to stupify life, the light- 
horseman braved in every climate, under his large 
cloak, the rigour of the seasons. The horse and his 



68 

rider, accustomed to live together, contracted a re- 
semblance to each other. The man was animated by 
his horse, and the horse by his master. When a tip- 
pling hussar pushed his rapid charger into ravines or 
amidst precipices, the horse would assume the supe- 
riority, which reason had before given to the man; 
he would calculate his strength, exert his prudence, 
avoid the dangers which presented themselves, and 
after some windings would always return to his rank 
and resume h-is proper place. Sometimes too, on a 
march, the horse would slacken his pace, or incline 
to one side or the other, to keep from falling off the 
drunken hussar who was asleep on his back; when 
the latter recovered from his involuntary slumber, 
and found his horse panting with fatigue, he would 
curse himself, weep, and swear never to drink again. 
For whole days he would march a-foot, and deprive 
himself of his ration of bread, to give it to his valued 
companion. 

When the discharge of a carbine, heard in the di- 
rection of our vedettes, gave the alarm in an encamp- 
ment of light-cavalry, in an instant the horses vvere 
bridled, and the horsemen were seen in every direc- 
tion leaping over the bivouac fires, the hedges, the 
ditches, and hastening with the rapidity of lightning 
to their alarm posts, to repel the first attack of the 
enemy. The trumpeter's horse remained alone mo- 
tionless amidst the tumult; but as soon as his master 
had ceased to sound, he would spring forward im- 
patiently, and hasten to overtake his companions. 



69 

Our army left La Mancha towards the end of 
February, and the troops under general Sebastiani, 
who had taken the place of marshal Lefevre, moved 
to the environs of Toledo, to watch the remains of 
the Duke del Infantado's force. We were sent to 
occupy Talavera, Arzobispo and Almaraz on the 
right bank of the Tagus, having in our front the 
Spanish army of Estremadura. These troops had 
been defeated, on the 24th of December, by marshal 
Lefevre, at Arzobispo and opposite to Almaraz; 
they had afterwards been reorganized and reinforced 
under the command of general Cucsta, had retaken 
the bridge of Almaraz from the French, and had 
blown up its principal arches, by which means the 
progress of our force was completely arrested, and 
we were under the necessity of constructing another 
bridge over the Tagus, under the fire of the enemy. 
We had indeed possession of two other bridges, one 
at Arzobispo, the other at Talavera; but the roads 
to those bridges were at that time impassable for 
artillery. Marshal Victor established his head-quar- 
ters at Almaraz, in order to be at hand to cover the 
workers, and to superintend the construction of the 
rafts. Part of our division of light cavalry crossed 
to the left bank of the river, to observe the enemy 
and to reconnoitre their right flank upon the Ibor. 

We frequently changed our cantonments, on ac- 
count of the difficulty we found in procuring forage 
and provisions. The inhabitants had abandoned al- 
most the whole of the country occupied by the army. 



70 

They were accustomed to wall up, in some remote 
corner of their houses, whatever they could not 
carry away. In consequence, our men, on arriving 
at empty and unfurnished lodgings, used to begin by 
measuring, like architects, the exterior sides of the 
houses, and then the apartments within, to ascertain 
if the dimensions corresponded. Sometimes jars of 
wine were discovered, buried under ground. We 
were habituated to living thus at hap-hazard, passing 
whole weeks without bread for ourselves, and even 
without barley for our horses. 

The 14th of March our rafts were finished; we 
could not set them afloat, nor construct a bridge 
under the enemy's fire. It was in the first place ne- 
cessary to drive them from the strong position they 
held opposite to Almaraz, at the confluence of the 
Tagus and the Ibor. 

On the 15th, part of the first corps crossed the 
Tagus at Talavera and Arzobispo, to fall on the 
flank and rear of the Spanish positions. The Ger- 
man division, under general Leval, led the attack on 
the morning of the 17th, at the village of Massa de 
Ibor; three thousand men of this division, which 
was without its artillery, routed with the bayonet 
eight thousand Spaniards, who were intrenched on 
an elevated hill, defended by six pieces of cannon. 
The whole day of the 18th was employed in driving 
the enemy from Valdecannar, and in pursuing them, 
from post to post and from rock to rock, as far as 
th& Col de la Miraretta. Our regiment was in the 



71 

left wing of the army with Villate's division; we 
ascended the course of the Ibor, driving before us, 
without effort, the Spaniards at every point; they 
made no resistance after finding that they were 
turned. 

The 19th March, the whole army halted, while 
the rafts were launched. The flying bridge having 
been completed before night, the artillery began to 
cross the same day, together with the troops which 
had been left on the right bank. On the 20th the 
whole army was assembled at Truxillo. There was 
an engagement in front of this town, between the fifth 
regiment of horse-chasseurs and the royal carabi- 
neers of the enemy's rear-guard. The number killed 
on each side was nearly equal; the Spaniards lost a 
field-officer. 

The two armies passed the night in presence of 
each other; and an hour before sun-rise die next 
morning, the enemy commenced his march. We 
quickly followed. The tenth chasseurs formed the 
van of our division of light-horse, which led, in ad- 
vance of the whole army. Four companies of light 
infantry passed to our front, whenever we came to fo- 
rests or mountains. Two hours before sun-set, the 
leading squadron of the tenth overtook the enemy's 
rear-guard, which finding itself closely pressed, im- 
mediately retired upon the main body of the Spanish 
army. The colonel of the chasseurs, hurried on by 
his impetuous valour, imprudently allowed his whole 
regiment to charge; they pursued the Spanish cavalry 



72 

for more than a league upon the main road, between 
hills covered with an oak forest. 

When a regiment or a squadron of cavalry charges 
in column or in line, it cannot long preserve its or- 
der, after the horses are put into full gallop; continu- 
ing to excite each other, their ardour encreases pro- 
gressively, and the men, who are best mounted, find 
themselves at the end of a few minutes, far beyond 
the others. The commander of an advanced guard 
should be attentive to make only very short charges, 
and to rally his men frequently, in order to let the 
horses blow, and to examine the ground about him, 
for fear of an ambuscade. Besides, in every case, it 
is proper, when you have gone too far to be sup- 
ported by other troops, to keep in reserve at least 
one half of your force, as a rallying point for the rest, 
and as a sort of rampart behind which those who 
have charged may form anew, should they be repul- 
sed and pursued by a superior enemy. The Spa- 
niards placed several squadrons of their best cavalry 
in ambush near the village of Miajadas; these fell un- 
expectedly upon our chasseurs who were marching 
irregularly and at considerable distances from each 
other. Our men were overwhelmed by numbers; 
their horses, fatigued by the rapid charge they had 
been making, could not unite their efforts at resist- 
ance, — and in less than ten minutes, more than one 
hundred and fifty of the bravest chasseurs of the 
tenth, lay lifeless on the field. 

General Lasalle, on being informed of what had 



73 

happened, made us advance in haste to their assist- 
ance; but we arrived too late; we could only per- 
ceive at a considerable distance, the cloud of dust 
which the Spaniards raised in their retreat. The 
colonel of the tenth, was engaged in rallying his 
men, tearing his hair with grief at seeing his sol- 
diers scattered here and there over a considerable 
extent of ground. Night coming on, we returned to 
bivouac in the rear of the field of action. 

On the 22d March, the enemy crossed the Gua- 
diana. We formed different cantonments around 
San Pedro and Miajadas. Our artillery arrived at 
last on the 23d, and the greater part of our army was 
concentrated in the town of Merida and its vicmity. 

In the night between the 27th and 28th, the whole 
army moved towards the enemy. General Cuesta 
had for several days been waiting for us in the plains 
before Medellin; he had caused the advantageous 
position, in which he placed his army, to be previ- 
ously well examined by his engineers. 

The Spaniards, to whom regular battles had so 
often been unfavourable, sought by all kinds of means 
to give themselves the confidence which they were 
deficient in. They considered the skirmish at Mia- 
jadas as a happy omen. They dwelt also upon an 
ancient superstition, founded on the tradition of vic- 
tories gained over the Moors by their ancestors, in 
these same plains watered by the Guadiana. The 
French, on the other hand, sought no arguments for 

K 



74 

their hopes; they confided from habit in victory 
itself. 

The entrance into Medellin is by a long and nar- 
row bridge over the Guadiana; before the town, lies 
an immense plain, entirely without trees, which ex- 
tends, in ascending the course of that river, between 
it, the village of Don Benito, and that of Mingabril. 
The Spaniards had at first occupied the heights 
which separate these two villages; subsequently they 
gave greater extent to their line of battle, and formed 
a kind of crescent, their left at Mingabril, their cen- 
ter in advance of Don Benito, and their right resting 
on the Guadiana. 

At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, we marched 
out of Medellin, to range ourselves in order of battle 
at a short distance from the town; we formed a small 
arch of a circle, comprised between the Guadiana, 
and a ravine, planted with trees and vines, which ex- 
tends from Medellin to Mingabril. General Lasalle's 
division of light-horse was stationed at the left wing; 
in the center was the German division of infantry; 
and on our right, the division of dragoons under 
general Latour Maubourg. The divisions of Villate 
and Ruffin were in reserve. The three divisions 
which formed our first line had left, in the rear of the 
army, numerous detachments to guard our commu- 
nications, and were not seven thousand strong. The 
enemy presented before us an immense line of more 
than thirty -four thousand men. 

The German division began the attack; the second 



75 

and fourth regiments of dragoons having then charge 
ed the Spanish infantry, were repulsed with loss, and 
the German division was left alone in the midst of the 
conflict; it formed a square, and resisted vigorously, 
during the remainder of the action, the repeated ef- 
forts of the enemy. It was not without difficulty that 
marshal Victor restored the combat, by moving up 
two regiments of Villate's division. The enemy's ca- 
valry tried at first, in vain, to break through our right 
wing; part of this cavalry then fell in mass upon our 
left wing, which, apprehensive of being surrounded, 
made a retrograde movement, to cover its left flank 
by the Guadiana at another point; the river here 
makes an elbow, and narrows the plain, as it ap- 
proaches Medellin. We retreated, during more than 
two hours, slowly and in silence, halting at every 
fifty paces, to wheel to the right about, and present 
our front to the enemy, for the purpose of disputing 
the ground before we abandoned it, if he should at- 
tempt to carry it in spite of us. 

Amidst the prolonged whistling of the bullets 
over our heads, and the grinding of the howitz- 
shells, which were ploughing the soil around us, no 
voice was heard but that of the commanding officers; 
they gave their orders with the more calmness and 
distinctness, as the enemy pressed the more upon 
us. The farther we retired, the louder were the 
shouts of the Spaniards; their skirmishers were so 
numerous and so bold, that they frequently obliged 



76 

ours to fall behind our ranks. They called to us in 
their language, that we should have no quarter, and 
that the plain of Medellin should be covered with 
our graves. If our squadron had broken and dis- 
persed, the cavalry of the Spanish right would have 
poured itself through the opening upon the rear of 
our army, and have enveloped it; the fields of Me- 
dellin would then indeed have been, as the enemy 
threatened, the grave-yard of the French. 

When the enemy's cavalry was within musket- 
shot, the skirmishers of both sides retired, and in 
the space, which separated us, nothing was to be 
seen but the horses of the dead, friends and foes, 
which, wounded for the most part, were running in 
every direction. Some of these animals were endea- 
vouring to get rid of the incumbrance of their mas- 
ters' bodies, which they dragged under their feet. 

The Spaniards had sent against our squadron 
alone, six chosen squadrons, which marched in solid 
column; the leading one was a corps of lancers. This 
mass set out together at a trot, to charge us as we 
were making our retrograde movement. The cap- 
tain commanding our squadron made his four sub- 
divisions, in all one hundred and twenty hussars, 
wheel together to the right about into line; when 
this was done he dressed the ranks with as much 
tranquillity, as if we had been on a parade. The Spa- 
niards were astonished at so much coolness, and in- 
voluntarily slackened their pace. Our commander 



77 

profited of this moment of hesitation, and immedi- 
ately ordered the charge to be sounded. 

Our hussars, who had preserved, amidst the mul- 
tiplied threats and insults of the enemy, a firm and 
profound silence, drowned by one single shout the 
sharp sounds of the trumpet. The Spanish lancers 
halted in dismay, turned about at half pistol-shot, 
and overwhelmed the squadrons of their own cavalry 
which were behind them. Terror had mastered their 
faculties, and they dared not even to look back, mis- 
taking each other for the enemy. Our hussars min- 
gled pell-mell with them and sabred them without 
resistance. We followed them to the rear of their 
own army. The trumpets sounding a retreat, we 
abandoned the pursuit and returned to form again in 
line. Soon after our charge, the whok of the enemy's 
cavalry, both of the right and of the left, disappeared 
entirely. 

The dragoons had rallied, and profiting of the ir- 
resolution, which was caused among the Spanish 
infantry by the flight of their cavalry, made a fortu- 
nate and brilliant charge on the center of the enemy's 
line. Two regiments of Villate's division, at the 
same instant, attacked with success the right of the 
enemy's infantry upon the heights of Mingabril; and 
in one moment, the army, which was before us, dis- 
appeared like clouds driven before the wind. The 
Spaniards all threw down their arms and fled in 
every direction; the cannonade then ceased. 

All our cavalry now moved in pursuit. Our men, 



who had just been threatened with a general mas- 
sacre, if they had yielded to superior numbers, and 
who were irritated by a resistance of five hours du- 
ration, gave at first no quarter. The infantry follow- 
ed afar off, and put an end to the wounded with 
their bayonets. Their rage was particularly directed 
against such of the Spaniards as were not in uni- 
form. 

The hussars and dragoons had dispersed into 
small parties during the pursuit; they soon after- 
wards returned escorting immense columns of Spa- 
niards, whom they turned over to the infantry to be 
conducted to Medellin. These men, who before the 
battle, menaced us so vauntingly, now marched with 
down-cast looks and with the haste of fear. On the 
first menacing gestures of our soldiers, they would 
press together upon the center of their columns, like 
flocks of sheep when they hear the dogs in chase of 
them. Every time that they met a body of French 
troops, they would cry, " long life to Napoleon, and 
his invincible troops!" Sometimes one or two of our 
horsemen would amuse themselves as they rode by, 
with making them repeat for themselves alone, ac- 
clamations which were due only to the whole body 
of the victors. 

A colonel, who was a courtier and aide-de-camp 
of king Joseph, looking on the prisoners as they filed 
off in front of the regiments, ordered them in Spa- 
nish to cry "long life to king Joseph!" The pri- 
soners at first seemed not to understand, and after 



79 

a moment's silence, they all shouted together the 
same " long life to Napoleon and his invincible 
troops."' The colonel then. addressed particularly one 
of the prisoners, repeating with threats the order he 
had already given. The poor fellow having sung out 
** long life to king Joseph!" a Spanish officer, who, 
according to custom, had retained his side.arms, 
came up to the soldier and passed his sword through 
his body. Our enemies were willing to render ho- 
mage to our victorious arms, but not to recognize, 
even in the midst of their humiliation, the authority 
of a sovereign who was not the one of their choice, 

I returned into the town of Medellin a little before 
night. Ammunition waggons broken in pieces, and 
cannon abandoned together with their draught mules, 
still marked the position which had been occupied 
by the Spanish army. Silence and quiet had suc- 
ceeded to the activity of battle and the shouts of vic- 
tory. There were no longer heard throughout the 
field any sounds but the occasional groans of the 
wounded and the low murmurs of the dying; they 
raised up their heads, as they were expiring, to pray 
to God and the Virgin Mary. Here and there were 
seen wounded horses, whose legs had been shatter- 
ed by cannon shot, and who were incapable of mov- 
ing from the spot where they had fallen; ignorant of 
death, fearless of futurity, they were biting the grass 
around them as far as their necks could reach. 

The French had not four thousand men killed and 
wounded. The Spaniards left twelve thousand dead 



80 

and nineteen pieces of cannon on the field of battle. 
We took from seven to eight thousand prisoners; 
but of these scarce two thou -and reached Madrid, 
for they found in their own country many opportu- 
nities of escaping. The inhabitants of the towns and 
villages used to come out in crowds to see them, in 
order to divert the attention of the French escorts; they 
always took care to leave their dwellings open, and 
the prisoners, in marching along, would mingle with 
the multitude or shelter themselves in the houses, of 
which the doors were immediately shut upon them. 
Our soldiers, whose humanity usually returned after 
the excitement of battle was over, winked at these 
evasions, notwithstanding the severity of the orders 
they received. 

Some of the prisoners would say in their language, 
while deeply sighing and pointing to a distant vil- 
lage, to the grenadier who had the charge of them: 
" Signor soldado, that is our village; there are our 
wives and children; must we then pass so near them, 
without ever again beholding them? Muot we go 
to that distant land of France?" The grenadier 
would answer with affected harshness: " If you at- 
tempt to make your escape, 1 will kill you; such are 
my orders; — but whatever takes place behind my 
back, I cannot see." He would then advance a few 
steps, the prisoners would take to the fields, and a 
few days afterwards were again in arms against us. 

Part of our regiment was left at Mingabril, on 
the very field of action, near the spot where the con- 



81 

flict had been most violent. We lived amidst dead 
bodies, and around us rose continually black and 
dense vapours, which, driven before the wind, car- 
ried pestilential maladies to the surrounding regions. 
The numerous flocks of La Mesta had come to 
winter as usual on the banks of the Guadiana; they 
fled with affright from their accustomed pastures. 
Their mournful bleatings and the prolonged howls 
of the shepherd's dogs indicated the vague instinct 
of terror which agitated them. 

Thousands of enormous vultures flocked from 
every part of Spain to this vast and silent field of 
death. Seated on the heights and seen from a dis- 
tance on the horizon, they looked as large as men. 
Our videttes sometimes advanced upon them, ta- 
king them for the enemy. These birds would aban- 
don their human pasture, to fly off in succession at 
our approach, but not before we were within a few 
steps of them; then the funereal flapping of their 
enormous wings resounded from space to space over 
our heads. 

On the 27th of March, two days before the battle 
of Medellin or Merida, general S6bastiani had com- 
pletely defeated the Spanish force, which guarded 
the passes of the Sierra Morena, in La Mancha, 
near to Ciudad Real. This victory, and the one we 
had just achieved, spread consternation throughout 
Andalusia. 

The Spanish government did not, however, allow 
itself to be discouraged by these great calamities. 

L 



82 

Like the Roman Senate, which, after the defeat of 
Cannae, thanked the consul Varro for not having 
despaired of the safety of the republic, the supreme 
junta of Seville decreed that Cuesta and his army 
had deserved well of their country, and bestowed on 
them the same rewards as if they had been victo- 
rious.* To have blamed Cuesta and his troops, in 
existing circumstances, would have been to acknow- 
ledge themselves conquered. In a fortnight after the 
affair of Medellin, the Spanish army had recovered 
from its losses, and nearly thirty thousand strong 
occupied the passes of the mountains in our front. 

General Sebastiani did not advance in La Mancha 
beyond Santa- Cruz de la Mudela, and our corps 
remained in its cantonments on the Tagus and the 
Guadiana.-j- We could not extend ourselves far in 
front of the latter river, without being certain that 
new masses of Spaniards would form behind us and 
intercept our only communication with Madrid, 
by the bridge of Almaraz. We had, besides, for a 
long time had no accounts of marshal Soult's corps, 
which must now have again entered Portugal, and 
with which we were to connect ourselves by our 
right and to co-operate. 

In the north of the Peninsula, the French troops 
had not been as successful as, from superiority of 
discipline, we had been in the plains of Estremadura 
and La Mancha. Marshals Soult and Ney had to 

* See note 7. f See note 8. 



83 

fight in a mountainous and difficult country, where 
knowledge of the ground, activity and numbers en- 
abled the inhabitants constantly to baffle the calcula- 
tions of military science, and the consummate ex- 
perience of two of our most renowned commanders. 

After general Moore's retreat and the capitulation 
of Corufia and Ferol, in the month of January, mar- 
shal Soult had taken the road towards Portugal by 
San Jago, Vigo, and Tuy; as he could not cross the 
Minho near its mouth, under the fire of the Portu- 
guese fortresses on its opposite bank, he moved up 
the river to Orense, where he crossed it on the 6th 
of March; the 7th he defeated the army under the 
Marquis de la Romana, on the heights of Orsuna 
near Monte Rey, and drove its remains into the lofty 
mountains near Puebla de Sanabria. 

Marshal Soult invested Chaves, a frontier town of 
Portugal, on the 13th, and took it by capitulation; 
the 13th he entered Braga, after forcing the pass of 
Carvallo d'Este, one of the strongest positions in 
Portugal. Lastly, on the 29th, Oporto, defended by 
an intrenched camp and two hundred and seventy 
pieces of artillery, was carried by assault; and the 
vanguard of the French crossed the Duero and ad- 
vanced to the Vouga, forty- five leagues from Lis- 
bon. 

Scarcely had the French army entered Oporto, 
when the garrisons which had been left in its rear to 
awe the inhabitants and guard its communications, 
had already every where fallen into the hands of the 



84 

enemy. The Portuguese troops in garrison at Camin- 
ha, a town situated at the mouth of the Minho, had 
crossed that river on the 10th of March, and united 
themselves to a considerable number of soldiers be- 
longing to the Spanish marine, and of inhabitants from 
the coasts of Gallicia who had taken arms under 
the orders of their priests.* They had fortified the 
bridge of San Payo against the French who might 
arrive from San Jago, and had possessed themselves 
by capitulation of Vigo and Tuy, where marshal 
Soult had left garrisons and stores of provisions and 
ammunition for his army. Chaves was in the same 
manner retaken on the 21st of March by the Por- 
tuguese general, Francisco Silveira, who, on the ap- 
proach of the French, had retired upon Villa- Ponca. 
This officer, after the capture of Chaves, seized the 
strong position of Amarante on the Tamega, from 
whence he could molest the rear- guards and French 
detachments in the vicinity of Oporto. 

On the 30th, La Romana came down from the 
mountains of Puebla de Sanabria with some thou- 
sands of men, the remains of his beaten army, at- 
tacked Ponteferrada, and made a few French pri- 
soners; he found there ammunition and provisions, 
retook a damaged twelve-pounder, which he repaired, 
crossed the road to Castille, and took by means of 
his field-piece the town of Villa-Franca, whose gar- 
rison of eight hundred men, he made prisoners of 

* Vide note 9 , 



85 

war.* On the report of this slight success, his army 
was quickly encreased, like a ball of snow which, in 
descending the mountain becomes an avalanche. 
La Romana obliged marshal Ney to abandon Bierzo 
and concentrate his force at Lugo; he then threw 
himself into the Asturias, which he excited to insur- 
rection as he had done Gallicia. 

The two French armies of Gallicia and of Portu- 
gal, now deprived of all means of communication, 
were henceforth insulated from one another and se- 
parated from the rest of the armies; they could no 
longer assist or co-operate with each other in the 
general operations of the war, and continued to ex- 
haust themselves by a series of partial combats with- 
out any useful result. 

Marshal Ney essayed in vain to subdue Gallicia 
by the terror of his arms; severe measures, instead 
of discouraging the inhabitants, encreased their ha- 
tred of the French; and, as will always happen in a 
country where patriotism is predominant, violent 
measures produced reprisals yet more violent. 
Whole squadrons and battalions were massacred by 
the peasants in the course of a single nighc. Seven 
hundred French prisoners were drowned at one time 
in the Minho, by order of Don Pedro de Barrios, 
governor of Gallicia for the Junta;! and the fury of 
the people, instead of diminishing, was augmented 

* See note 10. t See aote 1 1. 



86 

from day to day, in proportion to the progressive 
weakness of our army. 

The Portuguese had risen in mass like the Galli- 
cians;* and Portugal opposed to us a force of twelve 
thousand regulars and seventy thousand militia. It 
was impossible for marshal Soult, with only twenty- 
two thousand men, to keep in subjection the coun- 
try behind him and at the same time to advance 
upon Lisbon. He remained, however, upwards of 
forty days in Oporto, endeavouring in vain to bring 
the inhabitants to submission and to re-establish 
his intercepted communications. For some months 
he had received neither orders nor supplies; he had 
been unwilling, in spite of his dangerous situation, 
to make a retrograde movement, from the apprehen- 
sion of embarrassing the operations of the other corps, 
respecting whose position he remained entirely igno- 
rant. At last, on the 2d of May, he resolved to 
seize, with the division of general Loison, the bridge 
of Amarante on the Tamega, as a preparatory step to 
marching out of Portugal by the way of Braganza. 

On the 10th of May, the French advanced posts 
were attacked by the English, and recrossed the 
Duero the following day. The English army which 
had returned to Portugal after the retreat of Sir John 
Moore, was reduced to fifteen thousand men; they 
had not, for some time, ventured to land their heavy 
baggage, that they might be in readiness to reimbark 

*Vide note 12. 



87 

on the first approach of the French. The 4th and the 
22d of April, they received considerable reinforce- 
ments; and now, with more than twenty«three thou- 
sand men, they had moved upon Oporto. 

The French left that city on the 12th, and their 
rear guard had an affair with the English advance.* 
The corps of marshal Soult was pursued and mena- 
ced by three different armies; that of Sir A. Welles- 
ley, which never lost sight of his rear-guard; the 
Anglo-Portuguese army under general Beresford, 
which moved by Lamego and Amarante upon 
Chaves, and which had the start of Soult's right by 
several days march; and thirdly, that of the Portu- 
guese general, Francisco Sylveira, which preceded 
both the others in order to cut the French off from 
the passes of the Ruivaes, between Salamonda and 
Montalegre. 

Marshal Soult, finding the road to Chaves occu- 
pied by marshal Beresford, concentrated his army 
rapidly upon Braga, and took the direction of Orense, 
through the mountains; he traversed upwards of 
sixty leagues of a country full of insurgents, without 
suffering any considerable loss but that of his heavy 
baggage and of his artillery, which he destroyed in 
some impassable roads. The English did not pro- 
ceed beyond Montalegre and Chaves; they moved 
hastily back to the Tagus, in the neighbourhood of 
Lisbon. 



*See note 13. 



88 

Marshal Soult arrived on the 22d of May at Lugo* 
in Gallicia, liberated the garrison of that town which 
was besieged by the Spaniards, and opened a com- 
munication with marshal Ney, who was returning 
from an expedition against Oviedo in the Asturias. 
Some days afterwards he resumed the offensive 
against the marquis de la Romana, whom he pursued, 
without being able to overtake him, through Mon- 
forte, Pontefarrada, Bollo and Viana. He then pro- 
ceeded by Puebla de Sanabria to Zamora, intending 
to watch the movement which the English appear- 
ed disposed to make towards Estremadura, against 
the army of marshal Victor. 

After the departure of Soult, marshal Ney soon 
found himself obliged to retreat into the kingdom 
of Leon. His army had made no durable establish- 
ment in Gallicia or the Asturias, having been con- 
stantly prevented by the villagers and numerous 
bands of peasants, whom it was impossible to dis- 
perse and whose forces were daily encreasing. 

In those mountainous provinces of the north of the 
Peninsula the French, though always victorious when 
their enemy presented himself for battle, were not'- 
withstanding continually assailed by clouds of armed 
mountaineers, who never approaching to fight in 
ranks or in close combat, retired from position to 
position, from rock to rock, among the crags, al- 
ways keeping up their fire, even when put to flight. 

* See note 14. 



89 

It was often necessary to send whole battalions to 
convey an order from one battalion to another at no 
great distance. The men, wounded, sick or fatigued, 
who remained behind their columns, were instantly 
massacred; immediately after one victory, it was 
necessary to obtain another. Success was rendered 
nugatory by the indomitable and persevering cha- 
racter of the Spaniards; and the French armies were 
daily melting away, exhausted by unceasing labour, 
watching and anxiety. 

Such were the occurrences in the north of Spain, 
which had prevented our armies of Estremadura 
and La Mancha from profiting of their signal victo- 
ries at' Medellin and Ciudad-Real. The operations 
of the army of Arragon had in the same way been 
suspended, by the necessity under vihich the French 
found themselves of recalling from that province the 
corps under marshal Mortier and of sending it to 
Valladolid to the assistance of marshal Ney, in order 
to re-establish lines of communication in Gallicia. 

Since the commencement of the campaign against 
Austria, and the departure of the emperor Napoleon, 
the French in Spain no longer received reinforcements 
to repair their daily losses. Instead of concentrating, 
they continued to extend themselves more and more 
over the Peninsula; and weak at every point, because 
they were too much scattered, they exhausted them- 
selves by their very conquests in the south; whilst in 
the north they were losing, before an undisciplined 
peasantry, that reputation of invincibility more povv- 

M 



90 

erful in its eftects, perhaps, than the real strength 
which had subjected to them so many nations. 

King Joseph commanded in chief sinc6 the em- 
peror's departure; he had hoped that he sh6uld, in 
Spain as formerly at Naples, attach to his sceptre, 
by the known mildness of his disposition, the people 
whom our arms were about to make his subjects. 
He had allowed the French armies to advance in all 
directions into the Peninsula, with the sole object 
of organizing new provinces, and of reigning over a 
greater extent of country. He had thus exposed to 
destruction the armies of Gallicia and of Portugal, 
from which no intelligence could be obtained during 
five whole months. 

King Joseph had contracted indolent habits on the 
peaceful throne of Naples. Surrounded by flatterers, 
and by a small number of Spaniards who deceived 
him, he abandoned himself to extravagant hopes. 
Instead of following the armies, he remained in his 
capital, plunged in luxury and regretting the delights 
of Italy. He wished to sleep and reign at Madrid 
as he had done at Naples, even before we had gained 
for him, had that been possible, a kingdom at the 
price of our blood. 

The journals were filled with his decrees, which 
were never executed and seldom read; he gave to 
one church the sacred vases belonging to another, 
which had long before been plundt-ed by the French 
or despoiled by the Spaniards themselves. He la- 
vished the decorations of his order of knighthood up- 



91 

on his courtiers, who did not venture to wear them 
out of the places occupied by the French, from fear 
of being assassinated by the Spanish peasants. 

He made numerous promotions in his royal ar- 
mit s, which were not yet in existence; he appointed 
governors, administrators and judges, for the most 
distant provinces of his kingdom in both hemis- 
pheres, at the very time when he dared not pass a 
single night at those of his country seats which were 
only a few leagues from Madrid. 

In the hope of pleasing the populace, he imitated 
by all possible means the pomp, the ceremonial, and 
even the minute devotion of the kings Charles the 
Fourth and Ferdinand the Seventh. He led in per- 
son, on foot, religious processions in the streets of 
the capital, followed by the officers of his staff and 
by the soldiers of the French gendarmerie, who car- 
ried lighted torches in their hands. The affectation 
of sanctity and munificence only heaped ridicule on 
his head, when after the departure of Napoleon 
terror, which exaggerates every thing, had been dis- 
sipated. , 

The Spaniards had amused themselves with circu- 
lating a report that king Joseph was fond of the plea- 
sures of the table and that he was blind of one eye, a 
circumstance which had a prodigious efiect on the im- 
agination of the country people. In vain did he endea- 
vour to destroy these unfavourable impressions, by 
showing himself frequently in public and by looking 
always full at the people whom he passed; the popu- 



92 

lace continued to believe that he had only one eye. 
Devout people, who were accustomed to mingle 
with whatever they said the exclamation, " Jeisus, 
Maria and Joseph," stopped short after the two first 
of these words, and after a pause, would use this 
periphrasis, "and the Father of our Lord;" fearing 
to call down a benediction upon king Joseph, by 
naming the saint who was supposed to be his patron. 

The good nature of king Joseph was, in the se- 
quel, considered as weakness by the French them- 
selves. He in fact interfered with the success of our 
military operations by the ardent desire which he 
had of acquiring the affections of his new subjects. 
He uniformly decided in favour of the Spaniards, 
when disputes occurred between them and the 
French. We were often in want of provisions, be- 
cause in the districts, which submitted momentarily, 
we were not permitted to exact, as in an enemy's 
country, the requisitions which were indispensable 
for our subsistence; our soldiers died by hundreds 
in the hospitals of Madrid and Burgos from want 
of common necessaries. 

After a battle had been gained, king Joseph used 
to visit the Retiro to make the prisoners, sent from 
the armies, take the oath of fidelity to him; he used 
to tell them that they had been deceived by perfidi- 
ous advisers, and that he, their king, desired nothing 
but their welfare and happiness. The prisoners, who 
expected the day before to be all put to death, would 
without hesitation take the proposed oath; but as 



93 

soon as they were armed and equipped, they de- 
serted and returned to their own armies. Our sol- 
diers easily recognized these men by their new 
uniforms, and they used to call king Joseph, the ad- 
ministrator and organizer- in-chief of the military 
dep6ts of the supreme junta of Seville. 

Our marshals and generals obeyed with reluctance 
the orders of one who could no longer be considered 
as a Frenchman, from the moment that he was ac- 
knowledged king of Spain; and they endeavoured to 
contradict and annoy him by all possible methods, 
in order to be sent away to Germany. They wished, 
at all hazards, to abandon an irregular warfare, which 
was unpopular even among the common soldiers, 
and which deprived them of opportunities of distin- 
guishing themselves and of obtaining great rewards, 
by fighting under the immediate eye of the emperor. 

King Joseph had not sufficient authority and mi- 
litary talent, nor confidence enough in himself, to 
undertake the direction of the operations which the 
new state of affairs rendered necessary. He gave no 
orders without having consulted his brother. The 
plans dictated at Paris, or in Germany, often arrived 
too late; besides, they could be but imperfectly exe- 
cuted by one who had not himself formed them, and 
the French army in Spain was completely bereft of 
that singleness of direction, without which the sim- 
plest operations of war cannot be successful. 

In the month of April our army, commanded by 
marshal Victor, left for a time its cantonments on 



94 

the Guadiana, and approached the Tagus, in order 
to form a junction with Lapisse's division; the lat- 
ter had been in vain summoning the town of Ciudad- 
Rodrigo. One division of Victor's army marched 
anew to Alcantara, on the 14th of May, and crossed 
the river after an unimportant engagement with some 
Portuguese militia; the following day, it reconnoi- 
tered the environs of Castel-Blanco; but information 
being obtained that eight thousand English and Por- 
tuguese occupied Abrantes, it was conjectured that 
Souk's expedition against Lisbon had failed, and 
the division retraced its steps. Marshal Victor then 
united all his forces around Truxillo, between the 
Guadiana and the Tagus, to secure his communica- 
tions by the bridge of Almaraz, cover Madrid and 
watch Cuesta's army. The fourth corps, commanded 
by general Sebastiani, had remained in la Mancha 
since the battle of Ciudad-Real. 

On the 20th of May, the officers and non-com- 
missioned officers of the fourth squadrons of all the 
cavalry of the army received the minister of war's 
orders to return to the grand dep6ts of their regi- 
ments, to form new squadrons. In consequence of 
this arrangement, I left Spain; and on my arrival in 
France was sent to the coast of Flanders. The ex- 
pedition of the English, against the fleet and dock- 
yards at Antwerp, having failed in consequence of 
the slowness and indecision of their commander-in- 
chief, I returned to Spain in the beginning of the 
following year. 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



WAR OF THE FRENCH IN SPAIN. 



PART II. 



After marshal Soult had been forced to abandon 
Oporto and the whole of Portugal, ihe English army 
recrossed the Duero, and returned to the cities of 
Thomar and Abrantes, near the Tagus, to prepare 
an incursion into Spanish Estremadura, by Coria 
and Placentia. Marshal Victor, whose army occupied 
the environs of Truxillo and Caceres, apprehensive 
that the English should get to his rear by the right 
bank of the Tagus, repassed that river in the begin- 
ning of June, and retreated first to La Calzada, and 
afterwards, on the 26th, to Talavera de la Reyna. 

The British army, commanded by Sir Arthur 
Wellesley, formed a junction with the Spaniards 
under general Cuesta, on the 20th of July, at Oro- 
peza. The former counted in its ranks twenty thou- 
sand English and between four and five thousand 
Portuguese; that of Cuesta consisted of thirty^ eight 
thousand men. Another army of eighteen or twenty 
thousand Spaniards, under general Venegas, was 



96 

preparing in la Mancha to co-operate with the above 
mentioned force. 

An advanced corps of Spaniards and Portuguese, 
commanded by the English general Wilson, pro- 
ceeded through the mountains of Arenas as far as 
Escalona, (which he reached on the 256) to com- 
municate with the Spaniards under Venegas, then 
advancing from Tembleque, by Ocafia, towards 
Aranjuez and Valdemoro. Generals Wilson and 
Venegas were to approach Madrid and endeavour 
to take possession of that city, with the aid of the in- 
habitants. This combined movement was intended 
to oblige king Joseph to attend solely to the safety 
of his capital, and to prevent the concentration of his 
forces. The Anglo- Spanish armies hoped in a short 
time to beat the French, or at least to force them to 
abandon Madrid and all the midland provinces of 
Spain, to recross the mountains, and to retire upon 
Segovia. 

Generals Wellesley and Cuesta advanced, the 22d 
of July, upon Talavera; the Spanish cavalry obtained 
near that town a slight advantage over the cavalry of 
the French rear-guard, which was falling back upon 
its main body.* This success exalted the hopes of 
the Spaniards to the highest pitch; they determined 
to revenge their defeat at MedeUin, by attacking, 
alone, the French whom they considered as already 
half- conquered, because they were retreating; for 



* See Note 1 5. 



97 

this purpose they left the British at Talavera, and 
imprudently advanced by El Bravo and Santa Olalla 
as far as Torrijos. 

Marshal Victor retreated in the direction of Tole- 
do, behind the Guadarama, where he was joined, on 
the 25th, by the corps under general Sebastiani and 
by the troops which king Joseph brought with him 
from Madrid. The whole French army of the center, 
thus united, found itself forty thousand men strong; 
and on the 26th, it marched towards Talavera, under 
the immediate command of king Joseph. 

The regiment of dragoons of Villa- Viciosa was 
cut almost entirely in pieces in the defilee of Alca- 
bon, near Torrijos, by the second regiment of hus- 
sars, which formed the advance of the French army. 
The whole of Cuesta's force then retired precipi- 
tately beyond the Alberche. The French crossed 
that river the following day, drove in the English 
posts, and at five o'clock in the afternoon were within 
cannon shot of the enemy. 

The Spanish army had taken a position which 
was too strong to be attacked, behind some old walls 
and garden fences, immediately round the town of 
Talavera; its right rested on the Tagus, and its left 
joined the right of the English, near a redoubt con- 
structed upon an eminence. The ground in front of 
the combined armies was uneven and broken by 
gullies, formed by the winter rains; their position 
was covered in its whole extent by the steep banks 
of a torrent or ravine, at that time without water. 

N 



98 

The left of the English rested upon an elevated 
knoll, which commanded the greater part of the 
field of battle and was separated from the spurs of 
the mountains of Castille by a deep and pretty wide 
valley. 

The knoll was, in a manner, the key of the ene- 
my's position; it was against this decisive point that 
an able commander, gifted with that rapid perception 
of localities which decides the event of battles, would 
at once have directed the greater part of his forces, 
in order to obtain possession of it, either by a direct 
assault, or by turning it through the valley below; 
but king Joseph in the hour of action was always 
seized with a fatal spirit of hesitation and uncertain- 
ty. He tried half- measures, expended his strength 
in partial efforts, and let slip the moment and oppor- 
tunity of securing victory. Marshal Jourdan com- 
manded under him; but that officer was no longer 
animated by the fire of patriotism which led him to 
conquest in the fields of Fleurus, when he was fight- 
ing for the independence of France. 

The French began by cannonading and skirmish- 
ing in advance of their right, and they sent no more 
than one battalion and a few light infantry. men 
through the valley to occupy the knoll on the Eng- 
lish left, under the impression that the enemy thought 
only of making a retreat. This battalion was engag- 
ed with superior numbers, and was quickly forced 
to retire with loss. A division of dragoons, which 
was reconnoitering near Talavera, found the ap- 



99 

preaches to the town strongly intrenched with artil- 
lery, and was obliged to abandon its object. 

When night came on, the French made another 
attempt upon the knoll; one regiment of infantry 
(followed at some distance by two more of the same 
arm) attacked the extreme left of the English with 
unexampled impetuosity, reached the summit of the 
knoll and took possession of it; but was soon forced 
to fall back, in consequence of being charged by a 
whole British division at the moment when the men 
were exhausted by the vigorous effort they had been 
successfully making. One of the regiments destined 
to support this attack had lost its way in the dark 
through the woods; the other had been retarded in 
its progress, by missing the passage across the ra- 
vine which covered the enemy's position. 

These successive attacks failed, notwithstanding 
the intrepidity and ralour of the troops, because they 
were made with insufficient numbers. First one bat- 
talion, then a single division had been sent, where a 
considerable portion of the whole army should have 
been employed. These abortive attempts indicated 
to the English what were the projects of the French 
for the next day, and made them appreciate more 
fully the importance and strength of their position, 
which they spent the remainder of the night in for- 
tifying with artillery. 

The sim rose the following morning upon the two 
armies, drawn up in order of battle, and the cannon- 
ade recommenced. The action about to take place 



100 

was pregnant with the fate of Portugal (whose de^ 
fence was entrusted to the British army) and perhaps 
with that of the whole Peninsula. The veterans, of 
the 1st and 4th corps of the French army, accustom- 
ed to conquer for years in every part of Europe and 
to find their valour ever seconded by the skilful com- 
binations of their chiefs, ^waited impatiently for the 
signal of battle, confident of carrying every thing be- 
fore them by one well-combined effort. 

A single division, consisting of three regiments, 
was sent, as the day before, by the valley, to assail 
the position which had been carried for an instant 
during the night. This division, after suffering great 
loss, reached the top of the knoll; it was on the point 
of occupying it; one of the regiments was already 
marching upon the enemy's artillery, when its charge 
was repelled and the whole division forced to retire. 
The h.nglish judged, fi"om this renewed attack, that 
the French would endeavour to turn their left by the 
valley; they stationed the whole of their cavalry in 
the latter, and placed a Spanish division at the foot 
of the mountains of Castille. The French return- 
ed to their first position; the cannonade lasted about 
an hour longer, and then gradually ceased. The 
burning heat of the meridian sun obliged the com- 
batants on each side to suspend the fight and to 
observe a sort of truce, during which the wounded 
were borne off from the field. 

King Joseph having, at last, gone in person to re- 
connoitre the enemy's position, gave orders, at four 



101 

in the afternoon, for a general attack upon the Bri- 
tish army. One division of dragoons was left near 
Talavera to watch the Spaniards. The corps of ge- 
neral Sebastiani marched against the British right; 
whilst the three divisions of infantry under marshal 
Victor, followed by masses of cavalry, advanced 
through the valley to attack their left. King Joseph 
and marshal Jourdan placed themselves with the re- 
serve, behind the 4th corps. The cannon and mus- 
ketry soon announced the renewal of the conflict. 

The English general, from the height which com- 
manded the whole scene of action, moved to every 
point where his presence could be useful. His eye 
embraced the different corps of his own army and 
could distinguish the smallest movements of the 
French. He beheld them forming their columns of 
attack, foresaw each project from the disposition of 
their troops, and had thus time to prepare before 
hand corresponding dispositions to counteract them. 
The position occupied by the British army, strong 
in itself and of difficult access in front and on its 
flanks, was easily approached in the rear of his line, 
and allowed him to move his troops with rapidity 
upon the different points which were attacked. 

The French had a ravine to cross before they 
could join the enemy; they advanced over uneven 
ground, which continually obliged them to break 
their line; they fought against positions fortified for 
their reception. The left, concealed by the knoll. 



102 

could not know what was passing on the right. 
Every corps in the army fought separately with un- 
equalled bravery and even skill; but there was no 
unity in their efforts. The French were not on this 
occasion led and commanded by a general-in-chief, 
whose genius could balance the advantages which 
the nature of the ground gave to their opponents. 

The division of general Lapisse first passed the 
ravine, attacked the intrenched knoll, and ascended 
notwithstanding the vollies of grape-shot that thinned 
its ranks at every step, but was quickly repulsed 
after losing its general and a great number of officers 
and soldiers; its retreat uncovered the right of the 
4th corps, which was taken in flank by the British 
artillery and forced to fall back for a moment. The 
left of this corps, commanded by general Sebastiani, 
had, under a very heavy fire of artillery, reached the 
foot of the redoubt on the English right and at the 
center of the combined armies; these troops had ad- 
vanced too far and too soon; they were outflanked 
and then driven back by the English right joined to 
the left of the Spaniards; they were, however, sup- 
ported, and soon renewed the conflict. In the center, 
marshal Victor rallied the division of Lapisse at the 
foot of the knoll, renouncing all hope of taking it by 
the front; the French, from this time, endeavoured 
to turn it either by the left or by the right. Villate's 
division advanced into the valley, and that of Ruffin, 
on the right of the former, moved along the declivity 
of the mountains of Castille; the cavalry which form- 



103 

ed the second line, prepared to break into the plain 
in the enemy's rear, by whatever openings the in- 
fantry should find means to make in the line opposed 
to them. 

The English then caused the French columns to 
be charged, at the very moment when they were 
commencing their movement, by two regiments of 
cavalry. These regiments entered the valley, passed 
in spite of the fire of several battalions between the 
divisions of Villate and Ruffin, and fell, with unex- 
ampled impetuosity, upon the 10th and 26th regi- 
ments of French mounted chasseurs. The 10th re- 
giment was unable to resist their charge, opened 
its ranks, but soon rallied; and the 23d regiment of 
light-dragoons, which was at the head of the British 
cavalry, was almost totally destroyed or captured. 

A division of foot guards, which was stationed on 
the left and center of the first line of their army, was 
charged; they vigorously beat back the French in 
the first instance, but one of their brigades having 
advanced too far was in its turn taken in flank by 
the fire of the French artillery and infantry, suffered 
severely and retired with great difficulty behind their 
second line. The French profited of this advantage, 
and once again moved forward; one more effort 
would enable them to force their way into the plain 
and to engage the enemy on equal ground; but king 
Joseph judged that it was too late to advance with 
the reserve, and the attack was put off till the next 
day. Night then followed; the conflict ceased from 



104 

lassitude, without either party's having obtained an 
advantage sufficiently considerable to merit the name 
of victory. 

The corps of Victor and Sebastiani fell back in 
succession, during the night, upon the reserve, leav- 
ing a guard of cavalry on the scene of action to 
pick up the wounded. The English, who expected 
that the attack would be renewed the next morning, 
were greatly surprised at day-break to see that their 
opponents had retired to their first position on the 
Alberche, after abandoning twenty pieces of cannon. 
The French lost near ten thousand men, killed and 
wounded; the British and Spaniards, by their own 
reports, six thousand six hundred and sixteen men. 

King Joseph left the first corps of the army on 
the Alberche, and moved with the fourth corps and 
the reserve to the relief of Toledo.* This city had a 
garrison of only fifteen hundred men; it was briskly 
attacked by a division of general Venegas's army, 
which had taken possession, on the 27th, of Aran- 
juez and Valdemoro.f Madrid had likewise been, a 
few days before, on the point of being occupied by 
the corps under general Wilson, who had advanced 
from Escalona as far as Naval- Carnero. The inhabi- 
tants of the capital had opened their gates and had 
come out in crowds, in their hohday clothes, to bid 
him welcome, having previously obliged three French 
battalions which composed the garrison to shut 

* See note 1 6. t See note 1 7. 



105 

themselves up in the fort of the Retiro. King Jo= 
seph sent a whole division into Toledo, and proceed- 
ed himself, on the 1st of August, to Ilkscas, from 
whence he could, as occasion might require, move 
against Vcnegas, support the first corps upon the 
Alberche, or repress any appearances of insurrection 
in Madrid. 

The English made no attempts on marshal Victory 
on the 3d of August, they retired to Oropeza, leav- 
ing the Spaniards at Talavera and the corps under 
Wilson at Escalona. In the night between the 4th 
and 5th, the combined Spanish and English forces 
hastily recrossed the Tagus at the bridge of Arzo- 
bispo, on hearing of the approach of the three corps 
under marshals Soult, Ney and Mortier, which were 
arriving from Salamanca by Puerto, to place them- 
selves between the English army and the bridge of 
Almaraz. 

The van guard of marshal Mortier forded the 
Tagus below the bridge of Arzobispo, at one 
o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th of August, while 
the Spaniards were indulging in their siesta; he sur- 
prised Cuesta's army and took their cannon, as well 
as -the artillery which had been placed to defend the 
bridge. On the 11th, Venegas's army was defeated 
at Almonacid in La Mancha by general Sebastiani„ 
The Spanish and Portuguese corps under Sir Ro- 
bert Wilson was completely beaten, in the moun- 
tains of Banos, by part of marshal Ney's army, 
which was moving back towards Salamanca, 

o 



106 

General Sir A. Wellesley's expedition into Es- 
tremadura was at least as hazardous a measure as 
that which had been attempted the preceding year 
by general Moore upon marshal Soult's force at 
Saldana, The English and Spanish armies would 
have fallen completely into the hands of the French, 
if the corps of marshals Soult, Ney and Mortier had 
arrived one single day sooner in Estremadura; but 
king Joseph had not ventured to dispose of those 
troops without having been previously authorised 
by the emperor Napoleon. It was only on the 22d, 
that he had communicated to Soult the order to con- 
centrate them at Salamanca, and to march against 
the English; that marshal had received the order 
only on the 27rh, had set out on the 28th, and not- 
withstanding all the diligence which he used, he had 
found it impracticable to reach Placentia before the 
3d of August.* 

The English and Spanish armies remained until 
the 20th of August behind the Tagus, occupying 
Messa de Ibor, Deleytosa and Jaraicejo, opposite to 
Almaraz, where the floating bridge had been de- 
stroyed by the Spaniards. The latter then retired to 
the Guadiana, and the British army returned into 
Portugal. 

The invasion of Estremadura had obliged the 
French to call to the assistance of their central army 
the three corps destined to guard the northern pro- 

*See note 18. 



107 

vinces; and in consequence of this concentration they 
were now in great strength. The Spanish govern- 
ment continued obstinately, after the departure of 
the English army, to act in large masses; an army of 
fifty-five thousand men was assembled in the plains 
of La Mancha, and was completely beaten and dis- 
persed, on the 10th of November, at Ocana, by the 
single corps of Mortier, which consisted of scarcely 
24,000 soldiers. There was little difficulty in beat- 
ing, in set battles, troops levied in haste, without 
discipline, and which being ignorant of military 
manoeuvres embarrassed each other by the very 
numbers in which they confided for success. 

After the battle of Ocana, the French ought to have 
assembled all their disposable forces anew, and have 
fallen rapidly upon Lisbon; instead of doing so, they 
crossed the Sierra- Morena, and occupied, without 
resistance, all Andalusia with the exception of the 
Isle of Leon and Cadiz. By extending themselves 
in this manner over the south of Spain, they gave 
the English time to fortify Portugal and to orga- 
nize the military resources of that kingdom. The 
French weakened themselves by once more dis- 
persing their forces over a great extent of territory; 
and the Spaniards were consequently enabled to 
wage, throughout almost the whole of Spain, that 
species of warfare which had so considerably annoy- 
ed their invaders in the Asturias, Gallicia and the 
north of Portugal. 

As the Spanish armies, in succession, were de- 



108 

stroyed, the provincial juntas, no longer able to com- 
municate with the central junta, had employed all 
their means in the local defence of the districts over 
which they presided. Those inhabitants who had 
hitherto endured their sufferings with patience, in 
anticipation of the victories of their armies, no longer 
looked to others for the means of shaking off the 
yoke of their oppressors. Every province, every 
village, every individual felt daily more and more 
the necessity of expelling the common enemy. The 
national hatred, which existed generally against the 
French, had caused a sort of concert in the undirect- 
ed efforts of these people. To regular battles suc- 
ceeded a system of petty warfare, a kind of organized 
disorder, which was perfectly suited to the uncon- 
querable character of the Spanish nation and to the 
unfortunate circumstances of the time. 

Those parts of Spain, which were occupied by 
the French, were soon filled with partizans and 
quadrillas^ composed of disbanded soldiers and of 
peasants and mountaineers. Priests, ploughmen, 
students and simple shepherds were converted into 
active and enterprising leaders. These chiefs, with- 
out military authority, without permanent troops, 
were in the first instance, if I may use the expression, 
only standards, round which the country people by 
turns rallied and fought. The accounts of the slight 
advantages, which these numerous bands met with, 
were received with avidity by the people, and were 
circulated with all the exaggeration of the South. 



109 

They served to encourage those whom repeated de- 
feats had, in other places, temporarily dispirited. 
The same v ivacity of imagination and love of inde- 
pendence, which had been detrimental amidst the 
slow and uncertain operations of their regular armies, 
now insured the duration of the war; and it might 
be said of the Spaniards, that if it had been found 
easy at first to vanquish them, it had become almost 
impossible now to subjugate them. 

When we moved from one province to ano- 
ther, the enemy's partizans immediately re-organiz- 
ed, in the name of Ferdinand VII., the districts we 
had just left, as if we were never to return; and they 
punished with severit); such of the inhabitants as 
had shown any zeal for the French. The consequence 
was, that terror of our arms never secured influence 
around us. As the enemy was spread over the whole 
country, the various points occupied by the French 
were all, more or less, threatened; the troops which, 
after a victory, were distributed about for the 
purpose of preserving our conquests, found them- 
selves from Irun to Cadiz in a continual state of 
blockade, and were, in fact, masters only of the soil 
on which they trod. 

The garrisons on the military routes were inces- 
santly attacked; they had been obliged to construct 
small citadels for their safety, by repairing old ruins 
of casdes situated on the tops of the hills. Some- 
times these castles were the remains of forts which 
the Romans or the Moors had constructed for a si- 



110 

milar purpose many years a^o. In the plains, the 
posts of correspondence fortified one or two houses 
at the entrance of the villages, in order to be tran- 
quil during the night, or to protect them in case of 
attack. The centinels durst not sometimes remain 
outside of the fortified enclosure, for fear of surprise; 
they placed themselves in some tower, or upon scaf- 
foldings made of boards on the roof near the chim- 
ney, to enable them to see what was passing at a 
distance. The soldiers, thus shut up in their little 
citadels, frequeiidy heard the joyous sounds of the 
guitars of their enemies, who always welcomed and 
feasted by the villagers, passed their nights in the 
neighbouring settlements. 

The French armies could receive their provisions 
and ammunition only under the escort of strong de- 
tachments, which were continually harassed and fre- 
quently destroyed. These detachments encountered 
little resistance in the plains; but, as soon as they 
entered the mountains, they were under the necessity 
of opening the passage by force of arms. The con- 
tinual losses which we experienced in some parts of 
Spain in procuring provisions and securing their ar- 
rival, were at least equivalent to what we should have 
undergone in a contest with enemies, who could have 
resisted us in pitched battles. 

The Spaniards did not allow themselves to be dis- 
couraged by the duration of the war. In some pro- 
vinces the peasants were always in arms; the plough- 
men guided their ploughs with one hand, while the 



Ill 

other held a weapon ever ready, which they buried 
on the approach of the French, if they thought them- 
selves too few to combat them. Their animosity 
encreased with all the oppressions «^hich they suffer- 
ed from the invaders. The evils, considered in other 
countries as the inevitable consequences of war and 
submitted to as irremediable, were to the Spaniards 
new sources of irritation and hatred. They employed, 
to satisfy their implacable resentment, by turns the 
greatest energy and the most artful dissimulation, 
when they felt themselves too weak for open resist- 
ance. Like vengeful vultures fastening on their prey, 
they followed the French columns to cut the throats 
of the soldiers whom wounds or lassitude prevented 
from keeping up with their companions. Sometimes 
too they feasted our men on their arrival and endea- 
voured to intoxicate them, that they might plunge 
them into a security a thousand times more danger- 
ous than the chances of battle. They would on such 
occasions send for the partizans, and show them in 
the night the houses which our soldiers had impru- 
dently entered. When other Frenchmen afterwards 
came to avenge the murder of their countrymen, the 
inhabitants were gone; and they found only deserted 
dwellings upon which tp wreak a vengeance inju- 
rious to themselves, for they could not destroy the 
habitations, though empty, without annihilating their 
own resources for the future. 

When our detachments made their appearance in 
force among the revolted towns of Biscay and Na- 



112 

varrp, the alcades, the women and children came to 
meet us, as in the midst of profound peace; nothing 
was heard but the hammers of the mechanics. Im- 
mediately after our departure work ceased, the in- 
habitants resumed their arms to harass the detach- 
ment among the rocks, and cut off the rear-guards. 
This warfare, in which there was no fixed object for 
the imagination to rest upon, exhausted the courage 
and the patience of our soldiery. 

The French could maintain themselves in Spain 
only by the influence of terror; they were constandy 
under the necessity of punishing the innocent with 
the guilty, of taking vengeance on the weak for the 
faults of the strong. Pillage had become indispensa- 
ble to their existence; the irregularities, occasioned 
by the enmity of the population and the injustice of 
our cause, had injurious consequences upon the 
moral habits of the army and' undermined the very 
foundations of discipline, without which regular 
troops have neither energy nor strength. 

I returned to Spain towards the close of the year 
1809, conducting to my regiment a detachment of 
eighty hussars. In the interior of France it was be- 
lieved, conformably to the statements in newspapers, 
that the English having gone back to Portugal, after 
the battle of Talavera, were waiting only for a favour- 
able wind to reimbark; that the conquered districts 
had been for a long time submissive to king Joseph; 
and that the French armies, tranquil in comfortable 
cantonments, were no longer occupied but in de- 



113 

straying a few banditti who plundered and molested 
the peaceful inhabitants. 

We joined several other detachments of light ca- 
valry at Bayonne, and cro>.sed the Bidassoa on 
our way to Irun. The inhabitants of every age had 
assembled at the gates of the town to see us, and 
followed us for some time with an air of curi- 
osity. We thought at first that their intention was to 
manifest the satisfaction they felt at our arrival; we 
learnt some time afterwards that the people of Irun, 
as well as those of the other frontier towns, kept an 
exact account of the French who entered Spain, and 
of those who left it wounded; upon the ir reports the 
partizans and quadrillas directed their operations. 

All the detachments which were going, as well as 
ourselves, to reinforce the different corps of our ar- 
mies in Spain, were ordered to assemble in the towns 
of Vittoria and Miranda, to make an expedition 
against the Spanish insurgents of Navarre and La 
Rioga. General Simon left Vittoria on the 13th of 
December, with 1200 men, to occupy Salvatierra 
and AUegria. The commandants of the garrisons 
left in the towns of Navarre had formed columns of 
light troops, which were to join general Simon, after 
having beaten any parties of the enemy they should 
meet on their march; this species of military hunt 
was intended to rout the bands of the parti zan Mina, 
who kept Pampeluna in a continual state of blockade, 
incessantly attacking the detachments and convoys 
which were destined for the French army of Arragon. 

P 



114 

Generals Loison and Solignac commenced their 
inarch on the 16th from Vittoria and Miranda, and 
moved simultaneously by both banks of the Ebro 
upon Logronio, in order to surprise the marquis de 
Porliere in that town. The numerous quadrillas of 
this chief intercepted our communications on the 
road from Bayonne to Madrid, making every day 
incursions to the very gates of Burgos, Bribiesca, 
Pancorvo, Miranda and Vittoria. My detachment of 
hussars formed part of a body of four or five thou- 
sand men, commanded by general Loison. The in- 
fantry had left behind them their ba^^gage, and even 
their knapsacks, that they might be more alert in 
climbing among the mountains. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th, we 
came in sight of Logronio. General Solignac's troops 
presented themselves at the same instant as ourselves 
before the town; they immediately occupied the 
gates and issues which are on the right bank of the 
Ebro, while we were taking possession of the bridge 
which communicatts with the left bank of that river. 
We flattered ourselves for a moment with having 
surrounded the partizans in Logronio; but we soon 
afterwards, to our great surprise, entered the town 
without the slightest opposition. The marquis de 
Porliere had been informed in the morning of our 
combined approach, and had escaped through by- 
paths into the mountains of Castille. The towns- 
people, men and women, were at their windows to 
see us pass; an air of great satisfaction showed itself 



115 

universally in their looks; they rejoiced that Porliere 
had escaped us, but assuredly not at seeing us; for 
they well knew, from past experience, that we were 
come to levy the arrears of contributions upon them. 

General Solignac went the next day in search of 
the enemy. He met at Najera a small Spanish party, 
which he pursued to La Calzada de Santo Domingo, 
thinking that he was about to come up with the 
main body of the partizans; it was a stratagem of 
Porliere's, to make us hasten in a direction opposite 
to that which he had himself taken with his little 
army. General Loison followed Solignac to Najera 
on the 19th; we were obliged to remain two whole 
days in this town, in order to obtain new information 
respecting the enemy, whose traces we had entirely 
lost. . 

The 21st, we learnt at last that the marquis de 
Porliere had taken the road to Soto. This place, 
situated in the mountains, was the seat of a provincial 
junta, and contained magazines of arms, ammunition 
and clothing. We renewed our pursuit of the parti- 
zans, following the course of the Najerillo. General 
Loison's division went to pass some hours of the 
night in a village at the foot of the high mountains, 
ten leagues south of Soto. A detachment composed 
of my hussars, one hundred and fifty Polish lancers, 
and two hundred light -infantry continued to follow 
the enemy; I led the advance of the detachment with 
twenty-five hussars. 

We passed through narrow and difficult roads 



116 

surrounded with snow, and at sun-rise came up with 
the enemy's rear-guard and took a few prisoners. 
We halted for some hours to feed our horses and 
to give general Loison time to approach us. At noon 
we resumed our march on the left bank of a small 
river which descends towards Soto. 

We could see upon the elevated summits of the 
mountains on our right the country people running 
oft' with their cattle. Small parties of Spanish horse- 
men, who were left on the heights, successively set 
off' at a gallop as soon as they perceived us. The 
priests and alcades of the hamlets which we traversed 
brought, with feigned zeal, refreshments as we pass- 
ed, for the purpose of delaying our progress. Out 
of fifty or sixty peasants of every age whom I ques- 
tioned in different places, there was not one who did 
not attempt to deceive us, declaring that they had seen 
none of the parti zans and that there were none at Soto. 
However, horses dying with fatigue, which had been 
left on the road with their loads still upon them, 
proved at almost every step that we were not far 
from the enemy. When we came in sight of Soto, 
about a quarter of a league from it, we were sudden- 
ly saluted by thirty or forty musket shot, and we 
saw some armed peasants jun.p from behind the 
rocks where they had lain in ambush, and run 
towards the town with all their speed. We halted 
in order to wait for the infantry and the major who 
commanded the detachment. We could find no place 



117 

to form line upon the height, and remained in single 
file on the narrow path by which we had arrived. 

Soto is situated at the bottom of a narrow valley, 
which is traversed by a torrent. Beyond the town 
rises a very steep mountain, on the sides of which 
a winding road has been traced. On this road we 
could see the partizans effecting their retreat. The 
magistrates of the junta of Solo and a great number 
of priests covered with black cloaks marched fore- 
most; they had almost reached the top of the moun- 
tain, and were followed by their treasure and by bag- 
gage loaded on mules tied one behind the other. 
Then came soldiers in uniform and a great number 
of countrymen armed with fowling pieces, who 
marched without any order. A crowd of inhabitants 
of both sexes and of all ages were hurrying out of 
the town pell-mell with the partizans. The agitation 
of so many human beings, hastening to climb the 
heights by the different winding paths, offered a most 
picturesque spectacle. 

Disorder manifested itself among the Spaniards 
the moment they saw us; and they accelerated their 
march along the whole extent of the road. Seeing 
afterwards that we were only a small van -guard, they 
took courage, and the side of the mountain resound- 
ed with their long and guttural shouts. Those who 
were nearest stopped and placed themselves upon 
rocks, from whence they took aim at us with their 
guns, uttering these words intermingled with a thou- 
sand insults: ** Come on if you dare, and take a 



118 

nearer look at the brigands^ Our soldiers had given 
them this appellation on account of their disorderly 
mode of fighting; they were separated from us by a 
ravine four or five hundred feet in depth, at the bot- 
tom of which flows the river. 

The marquis de Porliere left, to cover his retreat, 
a troop of cavalry in advance of the gate by which 
we were to enter Soto; and stationed, at a short dis- 
tance beyond the river, four or five hundred infantry 
on the rocks and terrasses which command the town. 
These men could, m all events, retire upon our ap- 
proach, without themselves running any risk and after 
having done us a good deal of harm. 

The major of the 26th regiment of the line, who 
commanded us, judged the enemy's position too 
strong to be attacked in front, and he determined to 
turn it. A hundred and fifty of our light infantry 
went down into the ravine, forded the river in our 
sight, climbed afterwards with considerable difficulty 
the opposite mountain, and skirmished some time 
with the enemy without gaining any ground on them. 
Their ammunition then began to be exhausted; they 
retired to a little chapel on the summit of the moun- 
tain, and sent two men to inform us of their situa- 
tion. The shouts, the threats and the fire of the 
Spaniards then redoubled; they had perceived that 
the light infantry had sent for assistance, and that we 
were unable to afford it. 

The captain commanding the enemy's cavalry 
came forward a short distance in front of his troop. 



119 

which was stationed at the entrance of the town, and 
began to provoke, by injurious terms, the officer at 
the head of our guard of hussars. He was making 
his horse curvet, and was flourishing his sword, to 
shew that he knew how to handle it dexterously. 
The French officer at first looked at him very coolly; 
but tired at last of his bravadoes and of the shouts 
of the Spaniards on the opposite hill, he went alone 
down the narrow and steep path which led to Soto. 
When he came within a few paces, the Spanish cap- 
tain turned his horse's head, and quietly joined his 
troopers. 

However, our major's uneasiness was increasing 
every instant; general Loison did not appear, the day 
was far advanced, we could hear no more firing from 
the top of the mountain, and we had no intelligence 
of our light infantry. 

When night came on, we heard the Spanish 
drums beat a kind of assembly, and we then beheld 
a brisk fire of musketry between two parties at the 
bottom of the valley, which were disputing the pas- 
sage of the river. The firing was succeeded by a 
profound silence. 

Darkness and distance adding to our uncertainty, 
we supposed that our light infantry men had come 
down from the mountain to force their way through 
the enemy, and we feared that they would be over- 
whelmed by number. The major sent my detach- 
ment to their relief. On entering the town we en- 
countered, instead of the Spaniards, Loison's division 



120 

which was filing through; this division, misled by its 
guides, had taken a very circuitous road quite dif- 
ferent from that on which we had come. The en- 
gagement which from a distance had appeared so 
severe, had taken place between our light infantry, 
who had actually come down into the town, and the 
grenadiers of LoisonVs advance. The two parties 
fortunately recognized each other after the second 
volley; night had prevented thern from taking cor- 
rect aim, and they lost but one man between them. 

The town of Soto was abandoned by its inhabi- 
tants. The air soon echoed with the voices of our 
soldiers, who were traversing the narrow streets and 
breaking down the doors, in search of provisions and 
lodging. Amidst these confused sounds, which 
were repeated by the neighbouring mountains, we 
could distinguish the shrieks of a female maniac, 
who with a voice more than human, ceased not, dur- 
ing the whole night, to scream for help. She had 
been left by the people in the hospital, and was vio- 
lently affected by the commotion, novel to her, 
which she could distinguish through the grated win- 
dows of the room where she was confined. Her 
voice sounded amidst the tumult, as if it were the 
organ of the whole departed population. In the mean 
time a fire broke out on the heights; we heard walls 
tumbling down with a loud crash, and soon afterwards 
an explosion, and then beheld the burning fragments 
of an edifice launched into the atmosphere. It vvas 
caused by some boxes of fixed ammunition which 



121 

the enemy had concealed under straw, not being 
able to convey them away. 

We left Soto :!t sun-rise, and for two days and a 
night followed the traces of the partizans through 
Munilla and Cerveni. Despairing then of overtaking 
them, we cantoned ourselves in the village of Arnedo, 
and afterwards returned to Logronio. 

General Simon succeeded no better than ourselves 
in his expedition against Mina. This partizan, hav- 
ing been attacked on the 19th at Estella and on the 
20th at Puente de la Reyna, dispersed his folio wersj 
and escaped from the troops whieh were marching 
upon him from every quarter. Immediately after 
Simon's departure he rallied his bands. The mar- 
quis de Porliere, driven from the mountains of Cas- 
tille, retraced his steps and threw himself into those 
of the Asturias. He had not lost thirty men in his re^ 
treat, during which he was pursued by troops sur*. 
passing his, four times at least in numlier. 

It appears from the reports of the different French 
commanders at that epoch, that similar bands existed 
in all the other provinces of Spain. They did incal» 
culable mischief to our armies, and it was impossi- 
ble to destroy them. Incessandy pursued, often rout* 
ed, they soon rallied again and recommenced their 
incursions. 

We remained a whole month in the province of 
la Rioga, while general Loison was levying the ar- 
rears of contributions, and then resumed our route 
to Burgos in order to join our regiment in Anda* 

Q 



122 

lusia. We arrived at Madrid on the 25th of January, 
We halted five days at a village near ihat capital to 
vi^ait for a detachment of our regiment, which was 
coming on direct from France with baggage, money, 
and a great number of horses to remount the cavalry. 
When they joined us, an adjutant- major who had 
them in charge assumed the command of our whole 
column of hussars; we traversed La Mancha, and 
soon reached Santa Cruz, a village situated at the 
foot of the Sierra Morena. These mountains, which 
sepai ate La Mancha from Andalusia, are peopled by 
a colony of Germans who were brought hither in 
1781, by the count d'Olivades. The oldest of these 
colonists followed us for hours together, to enjoy 
once more in their lives the pleasure of speaking 
their native tongue with such of our hussars as were 
Germans. 

We entered the province of Andalusia immedi- 
ately after crossing the mountains. A marked differ- 
ence is here perceptible in the warmth of the atmos- 
phere; and the magnificence of the landscape forms 
a strong contrast with the sterility of the Sierra Mo- 
rena or black mountains, which we were leaving 
behind us. The farmers were engaged in gathering 
their olives, and the country had, even at the close 
of winter, that smiling and animated appearance 
which is not to be seen in northern climates, except 
during the seasons of harvest and vintage. 

On our left were the mountains of the kingdom 
of Jaen, and we could distinguish in the back ground 



123 

the snow- capt summits of the Sierra Nevada of Gre- 
nada. These peaks afforded the last retreats in which 
the Moors sheltered themselves before their final ex- 
pulsion from Spain. 

The road passed between long plantations of olive 
trees, under whose protecting shade vines and wheat 
grow alternately. The fields are enclosed by hedges 
of aloes, whose leaves are sharp as lances, and whose 
slender stems rise perpendicularly to the height of 
trees. At intervals were seen, behind the habitations, 
thick orchards of orange trees, and on the unculti- 
vated banks of the rivulets, red and white laurels 
which were now in bloom. Here and there too were 
scattered some old palm trees, which the priests pre- 
served in their gardens, to distribute the branches 
on Palm Sunday. 

We marched along one or the other bank of the 
Guadalquivir, according to the different bendings 
of that river between Andujar and Cordova. The 
country is less pittoresque in advancing towards 
Seville; sometimes we crossed plains of wheat, seve- 
ral leagues in extent, without either tree or habita- 
tion, and sometimes immense uncultivated wastes, 
on which numerous flocks were pasturing. 

Andalusia is, unquestionably, the most fertile and 
opulent province of Spain. There is a proverb cur- 
rent in the Castilles and La Mancha, that " the water 
alone of the Guadalquivir fattens horses better than 
the barley of other countries." The bread of Anda- 
lusia passes for the whitest and most exquisite in 



124 

the world, and the olives are of extrao^-dinary size. 
The sky of Andalusia is so serene and pure, that one 
may sleep in the open air almost the whole year; it 
is no uncommon thing to ste people, in summer, and 
even sometimes in winter, sleeping at night under 
porticoes. Many individuals, who are not rich, tra- 
vel without troubling themselves to provide a lodg- 
ing; they carry their provisions with them, or buy 
such as are prepared for passengers of this descrip- 
tion, by women, who cook on chafing dishes, at the 
entrance and on the public squares of all the large 
towns. The poor never enquire of each other, as in 
northern countries, if they have a comfortable roof 
to sleep under, but if they have a good cloak which 
may protect them in summer from immediate con- 
tact with the rays of the sun, and shelter them from 
the rains in winter. 

In Andalusia, the traces and improvements of the 
Arabs are discernible at every step, much more than 
in the other parts of the peninsula; it is this singular 
mixture of the customs and habits of the east with 
the manners of Christendom, which particularly dis- 
tinguishes the Spaniards from other Europeans, The 
town houses are almost all constructed after the 
Moorish fashion; they have, in their interior, a court- 
yard paved with large flags, in the middle of which 
is a fountain spouting fillets of water to cool the air; 
this bason is shaded with lemon or cypress trees. 
Arbours of orange trees are sometimes planted near 
the walls, bearing leaves, blossoms and fruit through- 



125 

out the year. The different apartments communi- 
cate with each other through the court. There is 
generally an interior portico on the side next the 
front door. In the ancient palaces of the Moorish 
kings and nobles, as in the Alhambra at Grenada, 
these courts are surrounded by peristyles or porti- 
coes, whose narrow and numerous arcades are sup- 
ported by slender and lofty pillars. The ordinary 
houses have only one little court, very simple in its 
decorations; and at one of the angles is a cistern, 
generally shaded by a large lemon tree. A sort of 
jar, to cool the water, is usually suspended near the 
door J where there is a current of air; it is called 
alcaraza; this Arabic word indicates its Moorish 
origin. 

There is one of these uncovered courts in the 
body of the cathedral at Cordova, which was once a 
mosque; like those of private houses, it is shaded by 
lemon and cypress trees, and contains basons in 
which the water is continually renewed by perpen- 
dicular jets. On f^nttring the consecrated part of the 
mezquita or mosque, (it preserves this name to the 
present day) one is struck with surprise at the sight 
of a multiplicity of columns of different coloured 
marble; these are arranged in parallel rows near each 
other, and support arcades of open fret -work, on 
which rests a wooden cieling. The whole gives the 
idea of an immense grove of palm trees, whose 
branches bent in regular shapes meet at their ex- 
tremities. 



126 

The chapel, where the koran used to be kept, is 
now deroted to Saint Peter. An altar for mass, and 
a choir, where the canons chaunt the church- service, 
have been erected in the middle of this moslem 
place of worship, and have converted it into a Chris- 
tian temple. These changes occur frequently in 
Spain, and recall the remembrance of the triumph 
of Christianity over Islamism. 

The Andalusians raise immense flocks of sheep, 
which they pasture in the plains during winter, and 
send in summer to seek their food on the summits 
of the mountains. The custom of migrating with 
their flocks ever)'^ year at regular periods, is derived 
from Arabia, where it is very ancient. 

The Andalusian horses are descended from that 
generous breed which the Arabs formerly brought 
with them; and the same distinctions with regard to 
their pure and noble blood, which prevail in Arabia, 
exist also in Spain. The Andalusian horse is spirit- 
ed and gende; the sound of the trumpet rejoices and 
animates him, the smoke and noise of fire-arms do 
not alarm him. He is very sensible to the voice and 
caresses of his master; in consequence, when he is 
overcome with fatigue, instead of beating, his rider 
flatters and encourages him; the horse then seems to 
resume his strength, and does sometimes from emu- 
lation and to please his master, what he could not 
have been forced to by violence. 

We often took with us Spanish peasants, who 
conducted our baggage, provisions and ammunition 



127 

on their horses and mules. One day I overheard one 
of these men, after a long speech to his horse, which 
was much fatigued, whisper with earnestness in the 
animal's ear, as if to save him from mortification be- 
fore strangers: " If you don't take care they will see 
you,'''' At the same instant, a boy was crying to his 
ass, whilst he beat him with all his strength: *' Curs- 
ed be the mother which bore theeP"* Asses are treated 
more severely than horses; they are not supposed to 
have any sense of honour. 

Travelling is usually performed on horseback, 
and merchandise is in some provinces yet transport- 
ed generally on mules; the fine artificial roads which 
traverse the kingdom are of very modern date. The 
streets of the ancient towns are narrow and crooked; 
the stories of the houses jut out one over ihe other. 
It is evident that such streets, which are of Moorish 
construction, were never meant for the passage of 
carriages. The inns of Andalusia, as of Spain gene- 
rally, with the exception of a few that have been es- 
tablished by Italians in some of the great cities, are 
vast caravanserais where one meets only with lodging 
and stable room for horses and mules; travellers carry 
their own provisions with them and sleep on their 
saddle-cloths. The people of the country travel in 
small caravans whenever they leave the main roads, 
and carry guns at their saddle-bows, for fear of the 
smugglers who are very numerous in the mountains 
of Grenada and of the southern coast between Mala- 
ga and Cadiz. In some parts of Spain the country- 



12a 

people, especially the common labourers, sleep ofi 
mats which they roll up and carry a'iour with them* 
This oriental custom explains the words of our Sa^ 
viour to the man afflicted with the palsy i " Take up 
thy bed and walk. ' ' 

The women of the lower orders sit in the JMoorish 
manner on circular wicker mats; and in some con- 
vents in Spain where the ancient customs have been 
tran-^mitted without alteration, the nuns are yet in 
the habit of ^^quatting themselves down like the Turks, 
without knowing that they inherit this posture from 
the enemies of the Christian faith. The mantilla^ a 
kind of large woollen veil which the lower class of fe- 
males generally wear in Andulusia, and which some- 
, times conceals the whole of their faces, has its origin 
in the piece of cloth whieh the eastern women wrap 
round them when they go abroad. The different des- 
scriptions of fandangos very much resemble the 
lascivious dances of the east. The custom of dancing 
with castagnets and of singing seguidillas, still pre- 
vails among the Arabs of Kgypt as well as in Spain. 
They to this day call a scorching wind, which blows 
from the eastward, the wind of Medina. 

The Andalusians and the Spaniards in general are 
temperate like the Orientals, in the midst of abun- 
dance, from religious principle; they consider intem- 
perance as an abuse of the gilts which the D( ity be- 
stows on mankind, and hold in great contempt those 
who are addicted to it. They eat every day at their 
meals a piece of salt pork. This meat, which in hot 



129 

Countries is unwholesome, is prohibited by the reli» 
gion of the Mahometans, who hold it in abomin tion* 
At the time when Spain was re conquered from the 
Moors by the Christians, before the entire expulsion 
of that people, there were in Andalusia many Ma- 
hometans and Jews who were converted in appearance 
only, that they might be permitted to remain in the 
country; the Spanish Christians then ate pork as the 
means of recognizing each other, and it was, if one 
may so express oneself, a sort of profession of fiiith* 

There exists, even at the present time, so striking 
an analogy in the method of making war practised 
by the inhabitants of some parts of S.)ain and by 
the different tribes with which the French were en- 
gaged on the banks of the Nile, that if one were to 
substitute in some pages of the history of the Egyp- 
tian campaign, Spanish for Arabian names, it vvould 
seem like the recital of the events which occurred in 
the Peninsula. 

The national and local troops, or levies in mass, of 
the Spaniards fight in disorder and with loud shouts. 
They have, in attacking on open ground, the same 
impetuosii}^ the same fury mingled with despair and 
fanaticism which distinguish the Arabs. Often too, 
like those people, they are discouraged without suf» 
ficient cause, and give up the contest at the very 
motnent when they were about to be victorious; but 
whei! they fight behind walls and intrenchments, their 
firmness is unconquerable. The Egyptians used to 
flee into the passes of the mountains beyond the de« 

li 



130 

sert; the Spaniards abandoned their dwellings at the 
approach of our troops, and carried their most va- 
luable effects into their strong holds. 

In Spain, as in Egypt, our soldiers could not" remain 
a few steps behind their columns without being im- 
mediately massacred. In short, the inhabitants of the 
south of Spain had in their souls that rancorous hatred 
and with it that mobility of imagination, which charac= 
terize the Grit ntals; like them they were dishearten- 
ed by the slightest rumours of disaster, and again 
were up in arms on the smallest prospect of success. 
The Spaniards often, as well as the Arabs, commit- 
ted the utmost excesses of ferocity upon their pri- 
soners; and sometimes too they exercised towards 
them the most noble and generous hospitality. 

After traversing Andujar, Cordova, Essica and 
Carmona, we arrived at Seville, where we received 
marshal Soult's orders to join our regiment at Ronda, 
a town situated ten leagues from Gibraltar. We had 
been struck by the profound tranquillity which reign- 
ed in the plains of Andalusia. Most of the large cities 
had sent deputations to king Joseph; but this apparent 
tranquillity existed only in the open country where 
the French forces were numerous. The inhabitants 
of the kingdoms of Murcia and Grenada, of the pro- 
vince of Ronda, in short of all the mountainous dis- 
tricts which traverse or encompass Andalusia, and 
which separate it from Estremadura and Portugal, 
were all simultaneously in arms. 

We set out from Seville on the 18th of March, 



131 

slept at Outrera, and on the 19th proceeded to Mo- 
ron, a large village at the foot of the mountains of 
Ronda; the villagers were on the eve of joining 
their neighbours the mountaineers, who had already 
been a long time in a state of insurrection. The 
greater part of the population of Moron assembled 
on their principal square at the moment of our arri- 
val. The men looked at us with an air of restrained 
fury and followed our slightest motions with their 
looks, not to satisfy their curiosity merely, but to 
familiarize themselves with the sight of enemies 
whom they intended shortly to combat, and to lose 
that apprehension of what is unknown, which ope- 
rates so forcibly on people of vivid imaginations. 
Some of the women were dressed in English stuffs, 
on which were stamped the portraits of Ferdinand 
the Seventh and of such Spanish generals as had dis- 
tinguished themselves against the French. When 
we beheld the fermentation and spirit of revolt which 
prevailed in the village, we resolved to lodge all to- 
gether in three inns which joined each other. If we 
had dispersed ourselves to sleep in the houses of the 
inhabitants, we should probably all have been mur- 
dered during the night. 

We were not well prepared for fighting, because 
we had with us a number of led horses besides the 
military chest and a good deal of clothing belonging 
to the regiment, which were carried on mules and 
asses; all this rendered our march slow and difficult. 
A sergeant and myself were the only persons of the 



132 

party who had been in Spain before, and who could 
speak the language. Kvery day I used to set out an 
hour befort the detachment for the place where we 
were to sleep, and to procure provisions and quarters. 

On leaving Moron we entered the mountains, in- 
tending to f t ach Olbera that night. I had as usual 
preceded the detachment, and was accompanied by 
a single hussar and a corporal, who had been select- 
ed to perform the duties of quarter-master-sergeant. 
Two leagues from Moron I knocked at a farm-house 
situated on tjie mountain; a middle-aged man opened 
the door with an appearance of terror. I requested 
him to give me something to drink, which he im- 
mediately did with extraordinary readiness. I learnt 
afterwards that there were at the time in the house 
five smugglers, who were apprehensive of being dis- 
covered. 

Our advanced guard soon overtook us, and I be- 
gan to fear that I should not have time to prepare 
quarters and provisions before the arrival of the 
detachment. We could travel but slowly, because 
the road was hilly and rough, and our horses had 
been constantly on the march for several months. I 
gave my horse to the hussar to lead, and mounted 
that of a guide whom we had pressed at Moron. I 
set out before my companions, and arrived alone in 
sight of Olbera. A deep valley without trees, acces- 
sible only by an abrupt road, separated me from that 
town, which is situated among the rocks on the top 
of a lofty eminence that commands the surrounding 



133 

country. As I advanced, the peasants who were 
working in the adjoining fields, in groupes of eight 
or ten, as is the custom of the country, enquired of 
each other with looks of surprise what could be the 
cause of my appearance, and immediately left their 
work to come into the path behind me. The towns- 
people had already discovered my approach, and 
were crowding upon the rocks to watch my mo- 
tions. 

I began to fear that there were no French troops 
in Olbera as I had been led to expect, and stopped 
at the bottom of the valley surprised at the encreas- 
ing agitation which I beheld. For an instant I hesi- 
tated whether I should not turn back; but I thought 
it my duty to proceed at all hazards. My horse was 
tired with the speed which I had made, and the road 
by which I should have to return was excessively 
steep; besides I was closely followed by a band of 
labourers who had pick-axes in their hands. These 
men soon came up and surrounded me; they asked 
what province I was from, where I was going, and 
what was the news? 1 immediately found that they 
supposed me to be in the Spanish service; my uni- 
form of dark brown was the occasion of their mis- 
take. I took good care not to undeceive them, un- 
certain whether I could do so without the risk of 
my life. My object was to gain time until the arrival 
of our detachment, by making these people believe 
that 1 was a Swiss officer in the service of the junta, 
and that I was going to Gibraltar; I added that the 



134 

marquis de la Romana had just gained a great vic- 
tory near Badajos. The peasants listened to the news 
with eagerness, and repeated it to each other with a 
thousand imprecations against the French, which 
gave me a melancholy prospect of the fate which 
awaited me should I be recognized. 

I enquired in my turn if there were none of those 
cursed French in their town. They re plied that king 
Joseph had been forced back from Gaucin with all his 
guards, that he had abandoned Ronda several days 
before, and that that city was already occupied by 
ten thousand mountaineers. It was at Ronda we ex- 
pected to join our regiment; if it had actually fallen 
into the enemy's hands, our detachment must neces- 
sarily be destroyedln those mountains. The peasants 
stopped to drink at a spring by the road side, and I 
continued my way up the eminence. 

Soon afterwards I perceived five men, armed and 
equipped like soldiers, who were hastening to get 
before me by a cross-path, and who entered Olbera. 
Loud shouts were soon heard, and I had no doubt 
that these men had brought intelligence of the ap- 
proach of the detachment and of my being a French 
officer. I stopped once more, hesitating whether I 
should go on. The inhabitants who were watching 
me from the rocks above, perceived my uncertainty 
and redoubled their exclamations. The women had 
assembled in great numbers on a height near the 
entrance of the town; their shrill voices mingled 
with those of the men, like the whistling of the wind 



135 

in a tempest. I determined to proceed; I am persua- 
ded that I should have been killed if I had attempted 
a retreat. I was met soon afterwards by a corregidor^ 
an alcade and two priests, who were preceded by 
five or six persons, at the head of whom was a young 
fellow who, as I afterwards learnt, was the gracioso 
of the place. He said to me in Spanish, with a sneer: 
*' certainly the women of Olbera are very fond of 
the French; they will receive you kindly;" and re- 
peated with a grin several other jokes of the same 
kind. One of his companions asked in a loud tone 
what number of Frenchmen were following me? I 
told him there were about two hundred. He imme- 
diately answered rudely, " that is false; there are not 
one hundred including yourself; these five men who 
have just entered the town saw them from the farm- 
house on the road to Moron." This made it clear 
that they knew what I was. The priests and the cor- 
regidor having approached, I thought for an instant 
by their ill-boding looks, that they were going to 
propose to me the ceremony of extreme unction. I 
distinguished amid the confusion of voices, these 
words distinctly articulated: " he must be hanged, 
he is a Frenchman, he is the devil himself, he is the 
devil incarnate." 

The clamour suddenly ceased, to my great sur- 
prise, and the Spaniards dispersed; the corporal, 
hussar and guide, whom I had left behind, had just 
made their appearance on the opposite height; those 
of the inhabitants who had stationed themselves on 



136 

the highest rocks had mistaken them for the head of 
our detachment, and gave notice to the crowd which 
surrounded me. The cort egidor and alcade, imme- 
diately altered their tone; they told me, with many 
bows, that they were the magistrates of the place, 
and that they were ready to receive my commands, 
agreeably to the decree of king Joseph, which di- 
rected all the constituted authorities in Spain to pre- 
sent themselves before the French troops and to 
treat them with every attention. My confidence en- 
creased with the respect which these gentlemen 
showed me and the fears which they betrayed; i ad- 
vised them, with threats, to keep the inhabitants 
quiet, and ordered them to prepare, without delay, 
provisions for the troops that were about to arrive. 

The corregidor, to palliate the treatment I had re- 
ceived, entreated me not to attach any importance to 
the bawling of a few drunkards, who amused them- 
selves with exciting the populate; and when I asked 
what those five armed men, who had preceded me, 
were doing in the town, one of the priests answered 
with a soothing tone and a sort of irony, that they 
were sportsmen who had been shooting birds, and 
that the sacks they carried on their backs were full 
of game. I was under the necessity of putting up 
with this excuse, bad as it was; 1 dismounted, and 
walked with the priests and the magistrates to the 
town-hall, which was situated in the great square at 
the upper end of the place, and we set about writing 
out the billets for quartering our men. 



137 

The corporal, who was following me, left the hus- 
sar with my horse at the entrance of the town, and 
soon afterwards galloped up to the door of the house 
in which I was. Scarcely had he dismounted, when 
the Spaniards precipitated themselves into the neigh- 
bouring streets with violent outcries; they had ex- 
pected the appearance of a numerous troop, and 
when they saw a single horseman traverse their 
town, they recovered from their panic and rushed 
furiously out of their houses. Their rage was such 
that several were trodden down in coming through 
a vaulted passage which formed one of the entrances 
of the great square. I quickly stepped to the balcony, 
and called to the corporal to come up; which he did, 
and we locked and barricaded ourselves in the 
council-hall. The mob stopped a moment to take 
possession of the horse, portmanteau and pistols of 
the corporal; the ring-leaders threw themselves upon 
the staircase, came to the door of the apartment in 
which we were with the corregidor and the priests, 
and called to us to surrender. 

I first of all made the corregidor, whom I had in 
my power, order them to remain quiet, and theft 
told them that our detachment would quickly make 
its appearance; that we should sell our lives dearly, 
and if they attempted to come in, their ghostly fa- 
ther should be the first victim of their fury. Fearing 
that the door would soon be burst open, I retreated 
a few steps to the narrow entrance into an adjoining 
room, holding the priest by the arm to make use of 

s 



138 

him as a shield; I drew my sabre, ordered the cor- 
poral to do the same thing, and to remain at the op- 
pobite end of the apartment, so as to prevent the 
second priest and the corregidor from seizing me by 
the shoulders. The shouts quickly recommenced, 
and the people, who had been parleying with us, 
were pressed forward by the crowd, which filled the 
square and the staircase. The door received some 
severe shocks; it was beginning to yield to the 
weight of the numbers who assaulted it. I then said 
to the old priest: " I beg your pardon, father; you 
see that I can no longer resist this populace; neces- 
sity obliges me to make you share my fate, and we 
must die together." 

The younger priest, alarmed at the danger of his 
superior as well as his own, stepped to the balcony, 
and cried out with a loud voice to the mob that their 
ghostly father would infallibly perish if they did not 
instantly retire. The women uttered piercing shrieks 
on hearing these words, and the cro\'i d fell back at 
once; such was the veneration of these people for 
their clergymen. 

We sustained for some time this species of 
blockade. The square at last ceased to ring with 
the clamour of the infuriated mob; and the sound of 
the horses' feet, as our detachment was forming in 
line at the end of the village, suddenly struck my ear 
as distinctly at mid-day, as if we had been in the 
profound silence of night. We walked down to the 
troops with the corregidor and the old priest; the 



139 

latter we kept as our safeguard. I told my comrades 
what had happened, and advised them to proceed 
that very day to Ronda, as soon as we had fed our 
horses. The adjutant-major, who commanded us, 
insisted notwithstanding my remonstrances, on pass- 
ing the nighi at Olbera, and observed, rather re- 
proachfully, that regular troops must never allow 
diemselves to be put out of their way by a pack of 
peasants. This officer had been passing some years 
in France at the dep6t of our regiment; he did not 
know the Spaniards. 

We formed our bivouac in a meadow surrounded 
by a wall, adjoining the inn which is on the road at 
the end of the town. The inhabitants remained ap- 
parently quiet during the remainder of the day, and 
furnished us with provisions; but instead of a young 
ox which I had asked for, they brought us an ass cut 
up in quarters. The hussars found this veal, as they 
called it, rather insipid; but it was not till long af- 
terwards that we were made acquainted M'ith this odd 
deception by the mountaineers themselves. They 
often called to us, when we were skirmishing with 
them: " You are the fellows who ate the ass at Ol- 
bera." This was in their opinion, the most bitter in- 
sult which could be offered to Christians. 

Not daring to attack us within the enclosure where 
we were intrenched, tliey prepared themselves for 
the moment of our departure, and sent word to the 
neighbouring villages, to place ambuscades and lie 
in wait for us the following day on the road to Ron- 



140 

da. Towards evening they assumed a menacing at- 
titude, assembled in great numbers upon the rocks, 
and formed themselves, like a close fence, around 
the entrance to our bivouac. There they remained 
motionless, observing our proceedings. A fev/ voices, 
quickly silenced however by the alcades, now and 
then broke out in insults to our sentries. 

The priest presented himself at our bivouac a lit- 
tle before night, and asked to speak with me. He 
said that he had caused excellent lodgings to be pre- 
pared for our principal officers, and pressed much 
that we should accept them. His intention, as we 
afterwards learnt, was to make us prisoners, in the 
hope that our men would not know how to defend 
themselves the foliouing day, when deprived of their 
officers. I refused his invitation; he then asked if I 
was angry at what had passed in the morning, and 
if we suspected any danger from the towns-people. 
I answered that we felt nei;her resentment nor sus- 
picion. He then requested that I would myself, at 
least, come to his house, where he would treat me 
with every attention. I consulted with my comrades, 
and it was agreed that I should go alone with him, 
to show the people that we had no intentions of ven- 
geance, and thus prevent their attacking us during 
the night. My friends were in some measure in- 
fluenced by the hope that I should find means to 
send them some supper. I returned to the priest and 
desired that he would pledge his sacred word that 
no harm should befal me; he did so without hesita^ 



141 

tion; and to prove to him my entire confidence, I 
left my sword with the centinel, and followed him 
unarmed. 

We walked together through the town; all the 
people whom we met saluted my guide respectfully, 
and then looked menacingly at me; when they ap- 
proached so near as to induce me to apprehend a 
surprise, the priest made them retire by a single look 
and motion of his brow; such was the authority con- 
ferred on him by his holy profession. 

We soon reached the parsonage and were receiv- 
cd by the priest's housekeeper, a tall female thirty-five 
or forty years of age; she presented us with chocolate 
and biscuits, and then served up our meal on a table 
near the kitchen chimney. I sent supper to my bro- 
ther officers, and took my seat at the table; the priest 
sat opposite to me, and the housekeeper took a chair 
on his right hand, almost under the chimney, which 
was a very high one. After a short silence, the priest 
asked me if I would not hear mass the next day 
before I set out; I answered that I was not a catholic. 
At these words his features contracted themselves, 
and the housekeeper, who had never before seen a 
heretic, shuddered upon her chair, uttered an invo- 
luntary exclamation, and heaved a deep sigh. Then 
after rapidly muttering several ave Marias, she con- 
sulted the priest's physiognomy to discover what im- 
pression she ought to feel at the sight of so terrible 
an apparition. Popular descriptions, and the pictures 
in some of their churches represent heretics spout- 



142 

ing flames from their mouths. She soon, however, 
recovered her tranquillity on seeing her master re- 
new our conversation. 

After supper my landlord, observing that I must 
be much fatigued, offered me a bed which, he said, 
would be better at any rate than our bivouac; seeing 
that I hesitated, he added, that it would be well to 
let the mob disperse, and that I must wait there a 
few hours at any rate. It then occurred to me that 
he wanted to detain me at his house, and afterwards 
give me up to the populace. I have been since in- 
formed that this was actually his project; and that he 
was the chief of the insurrection; some circumstan- 
ces, however, which I became acquainted with long 
afterwards, induce me to think that his intention was 
to make me prisoner for the purpose of saving me 
from the massacre, which both he and his flock des- 
tined for our whole detachment. 

As he had it in his power to betray me, if he chose, 
I took care to conceal my suspicions. I told him I 
would accept his offer, as he had pledged his sacred 
word for my safety; that I would go to sleep, but 
begged him to wake me in two hours at farthest, 
because my comrades, if they did not see me return 
before midnight, were very likely to set fire to the 
four corners of the town. I was then conducted into 
an adjoining chamber; I went to bed, a thing which 
rarely happened to us in Spain; the priest wished me 
good night and then carried away the lamp. 

The profound darkness in which I was left did 



143 

not contribute to the agreeableness of my situation; 
I reproached myself for having left my sabre, which 
I regretted as a faithful companion that might inspire 
me. with good counsel. I could hear the murmurs of 
the people passing to and fro under my windows. 
The priest opened the door from time to time, and 
advanced his white head, holding forward the lamp 
to see if I was asleep; I pretended to be soundly so, 
and he would gently withdraw himself. 

Several persons entered the adjoining room; at 
first they spoke in a calm tone, then confusedly and 
together, this was followed by intervals of silence, as 
if they had apprehended that I should wake and over- 
hear their conversation; again they would whisper 
with great vivacity. I passed two hours in this man- 
ner, reflecting on what I had best do. I determined 
at last to call the priest; he came in at once, and I 
informed him that I must immediately return to the 
detachment. He left the lamp behind him, and went 
away without making any reply, no doubt to consult 
with the people who were in the house about what 
he should do with me. 

While things were in this situation, our sergeant 
(the one who spoke Spanish) made his appearance, 
to my great joy, in my room, accompanied by the 
corregidor. He informed me that my brother offi- 
cers were very uneasy, and had sent him to enquire 
what had become of me; that the inhabitants already 
considered me as their prisoner; that they had deter- 
mined to attack us the following day, and swore that 



144 

not orte of us should escape. I dressed myself in 
haste, and again summoned the priest to keep his 
word, assuring him that my companions threatened 
to destroy the town if I did not return speedily. 
Fortunately for me the preparations of the insurgents 
were not completed; the priest darfcd not detain me 
any longer; he called the corregidor and one of the 
alcades, with a few more individuals, who placed us 
in the midst of them, and conducted us through the 
crowd back to our bivouac. 

The sergeant who had been sent to me was a 
Norman, brave as his own sword. He concealed, 
under the appearance of the greatest simplicity all 
the cleverness which is commonly attributed to his 
countrymen; he had insinuated himself with the in- 
habitants, by saying that he was the son of an officer 
of the Walloon guards, who was a prisoner in France 
with king Charles the Fourth; that he had himself 
been forced to enlist with us, but that he had for a 
long while been seeking an opportunity of deserting. 
The Spaniards of these mountains are, like the sa- 
vages, by turns cunning and credulous. They gave 
credit to the sergeant's tale, pitied him, gave him 
money, and confided to him part of their project. It 
w-as from him we learnt that the people of the neigh- 
bouring villages were to assemble in great numbers 
the next day, in order to attack us in a dangerous 
defilee on the road to Ronda. This lucky discovery 
saved us from a complete defeat. 

The priest and corregidor returned to us the fol- 



145 

lowing morning at the moment we were setting oft', 
and asked for a certificate of the good treatment we 
had experienced at Olbera. They were in hopes that 
the threatening aspect of the inhabitants would in- 
duce us to comply with their demand. We answered 
that they should have the certificate, when they re- 
stored the articles which had been taken from the 
-corporal who shut himself up with me in the town 
hall. We had already more than once applied for 
these things. 

The corregidor and priest went back in silence 
along the way which led to the upper town, and in 
a few moments cries of alarm were heard around us; 
the inhabitants had just massacred six hussars and 
two blacksmiths, who had imprudently gone to the 
forge to shoe their horses. The firing of small arms 
now commenced. W^e hastily mounted our horses, 
and the principal part of the detachment followed the 
adjutant. major, who commanded us, to the spot se- 
lected for our alarm post, about musket-shot dis- 
tance from the town. I remained at the bivouac with 
ten hussars to cover the retreat and protect the bag- 
gage, which was not yet loaded on the mules, be- 
cause the Spanish muleteers had all run away during 
the night. 

One of my comrades soon came back to inform 
me that our rear- guard was on the point of being 
surrounded, and that the Spaniards were keeping up 
a heavy fire of musketry on the detachment, from 
the rocks above and from the windows of the houses 

T 



146 

at the extremity of the town, through which my 
party was obliged to pass. Having no hope of being 
relieved, we resolved to cut our way through the 
enemy. My horse received a shot in the neck, and 
fell; I reined him up with violence, and got safe to 
the detachment. My comrade soon afterwards had 
his arm shattered by a musket ball. Almost all the 
hussars who followed us, fell in succession. Some 
women, or rather furies broken loose from the in- 
fernal regions, precipitated themselves with horrible 
shrieks upon our poor wounded fellows, and rivalled 
each other in inflicting upon them the most horrible 
tortures. They drove knives and scissars into their 
eyes, and bathed their arms and hands in their blood. 
The excess of their rage against the invaders of 
their country had divested them of every feeling of 
humanity. 

Our detachment had remained all this time mo- 
tionless, facing the enemy, in order to receive us. 
The inhabitants did not venture to leave their rocks 
and houses; and with our horses it was impossible 
for us to close with them and take vengeance for our 
slaughtered comrades. We called the roll in their 
presence, placed the wounded, who had escaped, in 
the center, and slowly took up our line of march. 

As it had been impossible to procure a guide, we 
followed, without knowing whither it went, the first 
path which led from the main road, on which we 
knew that the mountaineers were in ambuscade, and 
we wandered about the fields for a considerable time. 



147 

We at last saw a man making his escape out of a 
farm; he was mounted oii a mule. I galloped and 
overtook him; he was then placed between two hus- 
sars of the advance, with orders, on pain of instant 
death, to conduct us to Ronda. Without this pea- 
sant, whom chance threw into our hands, we should 
never have found our way through this unknown 
country. Thus had we to wrestle incessantly, not 
with foreseen military difficulties as in regular war- 
fare, but with innumerable obstacles, which proceed- 
ing from national spirit alone were renewed and 
multiplied without end at every step we made. 

Scarcely had we entered a valley of considerable 
extent, when we perceived on the heights to our 
left a body of twelve or fifteen hundred men, who 
were watching our motions; among them we could 
distinguish a number of women and even children. 
They were the inhabitants of Setenil and the neigh- 
bouring villages, who had been informed of our 
having changed our route, and had set off in pursuit 
of us. They were running precipitately in hopes of 
cutting us off from a defilee which lay in our front. 

We put our horses to a trot, in order not to let 
them pass us, and got fortunately in time to the de- 
filee. We soon afterwards found that we were sur- 
rounded by a cloud of peasants, who detached them- 
selves in a disorderly manner from the main body, 
and kept firing upon our flanks. They followed us 
as fast as they could run among the rocks, without 
venturing within musket-shot, for fear of being un- 



148 

able to get back in time to the mountain in case we 
should charge them. Priests and alcades were gal- 
loping along the ridges to direct the movements of 
the crowd. Some of our wounded, who were unable 
to keep their seats, were stabbed without mercy as 
soon as we left them. One man alone escaped, be- 
cause he had presence of mind enough to say that 
he wished to confess himself before he was put to 
death, and the priest of Setenil saved him from the 
enemy's fury. 

When we had reached a narrow path cut along 
the side of a steep mountain, we halted a few mi- 
nutes to let our horses blow; some rocks sheltered 
us from the fire of the enemy who were above us. 
We then discovered Ronda; and as vi^e were rejoicing 
at being now near the end of our journey, we were 
greatly surprised at seeing new enemies stationed in 
the woods near that city, who opened a heavy fire 
upon us. We now became extremely uneasy lest 
the French had abandoned the place; but soon, to 
our great joy, we perceived some hussars of our re- 
giment coming towards us. They also had mistaken 
us for the enemy. 

We entered the city and halted upon the great 
square; here our brother-officers came to embrace 
us and to enquire about France and the rest of the 
world from which they had been a long time separa- 
ted. We afterwards distributed ourselves in the quar- 
ters which were assigned us, counting upon some 



149 

days' repose at least after the long fatigues which 
we had undergone. 

The city of Ronda is situated in the midst of the 
lofty mountains which lie between Seville and Gi- 
braltar, generally known by the name of Serrania de 
Ronda. Their summits are destitute of vegetation, 
and their sides are covered with fragments of rock, 
which look as if they had been blackened and calci- 
ned for centuries by the heat of the sun. At the bot- 
toms of the valleys, and on the banks of the streams 
are seen a few orchards and meadows. Nearer to the 
sea the vine grows almost without cultivation; the 
best wines in all Spain are made in this district. 

Accustomed to contend with the difficulties of a 
rugged soil, the mountaineers are temperate, perse- 
vering and courageous; religion is the only social 
tie, and almost the only curb to which they will sub- 
mit. The former government could never bring them 
to obey the laws in time of peace, nor to serve in 
the army; they always desert when they are taken 
to a distance from their homes. Each village chooses 
its alcades, whose office ^asts two years; but these 
magistrates rarely dare to exert their authority, from 
fear of creating enemies and exposing themselves to 
a vengeance which is always implacable. If the 
courts of justice were to use force to put an end to 
a quarrel, every dagger would instandy be pointed 
against the judges; but as soon as one of the specta- 
tors begins a prayer, the combatants almost always 
lay aside their fury and join in the responses. In the 



150 

most violent disputes, the appearance of the holy 
sacrament invariably restores order. 

Not a merry meeting, 1 have been assured, takes 
place in the Sierra without two or three murders; 
jealousy is with these people a frenzy which blood 
alone can pacify. The mortal stab invariably follows 
closely the frown of anger. These mountaineers 
were almost exclusivelv engaged in smuggling; they 
assembled sometimes from different villages in con- 
siderable numbers, under the most renowned of their 
chiefs, and descended into the plains, where they 
dispersed in order to sell their merchandise; they 
often made head against the troops which were sent 
to pursue them. These smugglers have always been 
famed for the address with which they bafflers the 
vigilance of the numerous custom-house officers; 
being constantly exercised in traversing their moun- 
tains by day and by night, they were acquainted with 
the most secluded caverns, with every path and 
every defilee. Whilst the men are thus constantly 
engaged in this smuggling warfare, their women re- 
main in the villages and un^'iertake the most laborious 
occupations. They carry heavy burdens and pride 
themselves on the superiority of strength which ex- 
ercise gives them; they wrestle and contend with 
each other which can lift the greatest weights. When 
they visited Ronda it was easy to recognize them 
by their gigantic stature, their stout limbs, and their 
wild and ferocious looks. They were fond of deck- 
ing themselves, when they came to the city, with 



151 

veils and valuable stuffs, which they procured by 
smuggling, and which contrasted strongly with thtir 
harsh features and their sun-burnt skins. 

All the warlike tribes of these lofty mountains had 
taken up arms against the French; when king Joseph 
came to Ronda, three weeks before our arrival, at 
the head of his guards, he had in vain endeavoured 
to subject them to his authority, first by persuasion 
and afterwards by force. He had remained but a few 
days in this city, and had left a garrison of two 
hundred and fifty hussars of our regiment, and three 
hundred infantry of his royal guard. At his depar- 
ture he had vested our colonel with the title of civil 
and military governor, and bestowed on him unli- 
mited powers over the surrounding province. The ab- 
solute authority attached to this pompous title, which 
was equivalent to that of captain^general, ought to 
have extended fifteen or twenty leagues round; but 
the smugglers of the Sierra confined our dominions 
to the narrow limits of the walls of Ronda, and even 
here we could not sleep securely for the suspicions 
we entertained of the inhabitants of the suburbs. 

When night came on, we beheld a multitude of 
fires successively kindled in the neighbouring moun- 
tains. The illusion produced by darkness made them 
seem close to us, and we appeared surrounded by a 
circle of flame. The enemy had taken a position, 
preparatory to attacking us the following day. 

We had heard, for half an hour, the repeated 
sounds of a shepherd's horn, which seemed to pro- 



152 

ceed from a clump of olive trees in a small valley be- 
low the town. We were amusing ourselves with 
conjecturing what this strange music was intended 
for, when a hussar from one of our advanced posts 
galloped up, to inform the colonel that an officer with 
a flag asked to be admitted into the town. Orders 
were given to bring him in, and soon afterwards a 
corporal introduced him, with a bandage over his 
eyes. This messenger announced that he was come 
to demand our surrender; that the general of the 
mountaineers occupied, with 15,000 men, all the 
passes by which we might endeavour to escape; that 
he had captured, a few days before, a convoy of fifty 
thousand cartridges, which were intended for us, 
and that he knew we could not long defend the town, 
because we were almost out of ammunicion. This 
was too true; the infantry had only three cartridges 
per man left; our hussars could make no use of their 
sabres among the rocks, where their horses embar- 
rassed them instead of being of use. The colonel 
replied to this isummons, that before entering into 
negotiations, Mk. must sit down to dinner; and then 
desired me to conduct the messenger into the mess- 
room where the table was spread, recommending 
him at the same time to my particular attention. 
The stranger was a young man, rather well-looking; 
he had on a round Andalusian hat and a short vest 
of brovv'n cloth edged with sky blue plush; his only 
mark of distinction was a sash, of the flishion of the 
country, the ends of which were mingled with a feve 



153 

silver threads. Instead of a sabre he wore a long 
straight sword of antique shape. 

He was at first a little abashed at seeing himself 
in this modest equipage surrounded by a circle of 
officers covered with embroidery, and when we took 
hold of our sabres, at the same instant, to lay them 
aside before we seated ourselves at table, he mani- 
fested some uneasiness, not knowing the cause of 
this sudden movement. It came into his head, pro- 
bably, that we might be going to put him to death 
in retaliation for a magistrate of Ronda, who had 
been sent out a kw days before with a flag of truce, 
and was murdered by the people of a neighbouring 
village. 

I quickly relieved his fears, by inviting him to lay 
aside his weapon and sit down with us. After a few 
moments silence, I enquired if he had been long in 
the service of Ferdinand the Seventh; he answered 
that it was only a year ago that he had entered as a 
lieutenant in the hussars of Cantabria. *' Although 
we are enemies," said I, *' we are doubly comrades, 
both by our grade and by serving in the same de- 
scription of troops." He was much flattered at being 
treated like a regular officer. I asked some questions 
about the chiefs of the insurgents; he spoke in high 
praise of general Gonzales, observing that he pos- 
sessed extraordinary military talents, and was a pro- 
found tactician. We had ntver heard of this com- 
mander before, and learned afterwards that he was a 
sergeant of the regular forces, who had been lately 

U 



154 

appointed by the insurgents a brigadier-general, t^ 
give themselves the appearance of an organized 
army. Our guest, by exaggerating every thing be- 
longing to his party, gave us precisely the intelli* 
gence we were desirous of obtaining, which was 
that no British troops from Gibraltar had joined the 
mountaineers, — a circumstance which would have 
rendered our situation truly critical. 

Our Spaniard did not at first depart from the so- 
briety which characterizes his countrymen; but 
when we drank his health, he pledged us, and then 
undertook from emulation, to drink glass for glass 
with us. During the first part of the repast we were 
only comrades; at the desert we called each other 
brother; we swore an eternal friendship, and among 
the marks of attachment which we exchanged, wc 
engaged to fight in single combat the first time we 
met again. 

After dinner the colonel sent back our guest with- 
out giving him any answer; I was charged with con- 
ducting him to the enemy's advance. I told him to 
tie the handkerchief over his eyes himself; a hussar 
was placed on his right to lead his horse; I was on 
his left, and we set out together by the road to Gi- 
braltar, the same that he had come by. On passing 
our main guard we were joined by the trumpeter 
and an old soldier of the royal carabineers, who had 
attended him as an orderly; the latter was the only 
carabineer in the insurgents' army, and they had sent 
him to attend the flag of truce, on account of his 



155 

having a new uniform. I was not a little surprised 
at hearing him ask his officer, in a tone of authority, 
why he had made him wait so long. 

The trumpeter was a young s-hcpherd, who had 
been decorated with a green doliman, of which the 
colour contrasted with his sandals, his cap, and the 
rest of his rustic dress; he had received his lesson 
before they sent him to our posts. When our hus- 
sars asked what he had done with his trumpet, he 
answered that he had just lost it; he had in fact 
thrown away the modest shepherd's horn which he 
blew, lest this unmilitary instrument should destroy 
the illusion he counted on producing by his disguise. 
The shepherd could not make his horse go on before 
us; the animal kicked and stopped at every step. I 
called to him in Spanish to proceed; he answered in 
a woeful tone, " this is the first time I ever was on 
horseback in my life, and they have given me a vile 
beast which will not move one step forward." The 
carabineer, who was close behind us, rode up to the 
shepherd, ordered him to hold his tongue, and re- 
lieved his embarrassment by leading his horse by 
the bridle. 

When we arrived near the first Spanish post, at 
the extremity of the suburb of the old town, I bid 
adieu to my new acquaintance, and returned to make 
my report to the colonel. A council of war was as- 
sembled, and it was agreed that we should abandon 
the city to go and wait for ammunition at Campillos, 
a large village seven leagues from Ronda, at the is- 



156 

sue of the mountains, situated in a plain, where our 
cavwiry would give us an advmtage over the moun- 
taineers, let their number be what it might. We had 
but little confidence in the three hundred men of 
king Joseph's guard who were with us; this corps 
was principally composed of Spanish deserters. 

Our colonel gave orders that the garrison should 
begin its march in an hour's time, without beat of 
drum or sound of trumpet, that the enemy might 
not discover our departure. I immediately warned 
the sergeants who were under my command, and 
we went from house to house to wake the conscripts 
of the detachment which 1 had brought on. These 
lads had counted on a long repose at Ronda, after 
the fatigues of our journey; and when we went at 
midnight to rouse them up, they were stupified with 
slet p, and not hearing the trumpets as usual, they 
"Would not believe what we said. Some of the poor 
fellows took us for the phantoms of their lieutenant 
and non-commissioned officers, whirh tormented 
their d seams with orders to march. It became ne- 
cessary to bestow some severe blows on them, be- 
fore they could be convinced of our identity. 

We marched for two hours in profound silence, 
by the light of the olive-wood fires which the enemy 
had kindled on the declivities of the mountains. At 
day-light we halted for a quarter of an hour in a little 
plain where we could use our sabres, to see if the 
mountaineers would not come down to us; but they 
went off every where as we approached, and climbed 



157 

the heights of the mountains without choosing to 
engage us. The villagers along the road fired from 
time to time, at great distances, upon us; the women 
placed themselves on the rocks to see us pass and 
to rejoice at our departure. They sung patriotic 
songs in which they invoked death upon the French, 
the grand duke of Berg and on Napoleon. The cho- 
rus to each couplet was an imitation of the crowing 
of a cock, which bird thty consider as the emblem 
of France. 

We arrived at last at Campillos, and soon saw, 
by the manner in which we were received, that the 
news of our loss at Olbera and of our retreat from 
Ronda had preceded us. When I entered my quar- 
ters I was rudely greeted by my landlord; when my 
servant asked him for my chamber, he showed him 
a damp ugly hole which opened upon the back yard. 
It had been impossible to issue provisions to the 
men when we first arrived; and the alcade had pub- 
lished an order enjoining on the inhabitants to fur- 
nish victuals to the soldiers quartered upon them. 
The hussar who attended me asked the master of 
the house by signs to let him have something to eat; 
I saw the latter bring in, with a sneering air, a very 
small table on which were placed some bread and 
some heads of garlick. I heard him say to his wife; 
"It is good enough for the French dogs; we need 
not fear them; they have been beaten, they are run- 
ning away, and please God and his holy mother 
there will not be one of them left alive in two days 



158 

time." I pretended not to hear his abuse, in order 
to conceal from him that I understood Spanish. 

I went out, and on my return an hour after- 
wards, I found five men belonging to the village 
seated in a circle smoking cigars; they were as I 
learnt the next day, in the habit of assembling every 
evening at my landlord's, who was a tobacconist. 
My hussar was at some distance from them; he rose 
when I came in and offered me his chair. I accepted 
it and drew near to the fire. The Spaniards were at. 
first silent; at last one of them asked if I was not 
much tired; and although I seemed not to understand 
him, he added, " you have made good use of your 
spurs the two last days." I made no answer and 
they resumed their conversation, taking it for granted 
that I knew nothing of Spanish. They spoke with 
enthusiasm of the brave mountaineers who had driven 
us away from Ronda. They detailed at length the 
particulars of a pretended battle which lasted twelve 
hours, and which had taken place in the streets of 
that city. They repeated to each other that we had 
lost at least six hundred men; and we had, in all, not 
more than five hundred and fifty. They asserted that 
the general of the mountaineers would attack us in 
two days at farthest; that the inhabitants of their 
village would take up arms, and that they would ex- 
terminate the cursed heretics, who were worse than 
infidels; for the French, they said, believed neither 
in God, nor the Virgin, nor Saint Anthony, nor even 



159 

in St, James of Gallicia, and made no scruple of 
lodging with their horses in the churches. They 
continued ten thousand invectives of this kind, with 
which they were more and more exciting their ima- 
ginations. They concluded with saying that one Spa- 
niard was worth three Frenchmen, to which one of 
the company added, " I could kill six of them with 
my own hand." 

I now rose and repeated twice poco a poco^ which 
signifies softly, softly; they were petrified on finding 
that I had understood their whole conversation. I 
left them to give notice to the colonel of what I had 
learnt; he gave immediate orders to the alcade to 
disarm the village. The inhabitants gave up their 
damaged arms, and kept those that were good; as 
is always the case in such circumstances. 

On returning to my lodging, I did not find a sin- 
gle one of my politicians; they had all taken flight. 
My landlord too had hidden himself; his v^ife in 
great consternation had tried, during my absence, 
to soften my hussar; she had hitherto given him no- 
thing but water to drink, but now she brought him 
some excellent wine. The soldier, who did not 
know that all these favours originated in fear, was 
much surprised at such good treatment, and even 
indulged in consequence a slight emotion of vanity. 
I found him curling up his horrible mustachios with 
more than ordinary complacency. 

My landlstdy took up my sword the moment I had 
laid it down, and carried it into the best room in her 



house, as if to take possession of it in my name. She 
then entreated me not to harbour any resentment 
against her husband, assuring me that although he 
had not treated me very kindly on my arrival, he 
was a worthy man, a good hearted man. I told her 
that her husband might come back without fear, that 
I should do him no harm, on condition he gave me 
immediate information of what he should hear of 
the enemy's projects and those of the villagers. I 
added however, to frighten her, that if he failed to 
do so, 1 would have him hanged. I then went to 
rest. 

The next morning I rose at break of day, and on 
opening my chamber-door I found my landlord who 
was waiting to make his peace with me. Before he 
said any thing, he presented me with a cup of cho- 
colate and biscuits; I accepted them with an air of 
dignity, and told him 1 should in future regulate my- 
self by his behaviour to me; he answered, with a low 
bow, that he and his whole house were at my ser- 
vice. 

This day, the 15th of March, we learned that the 
Serranos or mountaineers had entered the city of 
Ronda an hour after our departure thence, and that 
they were preparing to attack us at Campillos. On 
the 16th our colonel sent a detachment of one hun- 
dred hussars and forty infantry to reconnoitre the 
enemy. I was of this expedition; we set out two 
hours before sun-rise, and met the insurgents four 
leagues from Campillos. They had been passing the 



161 

night on the side of a mountain, near the village of 
Canete la Real. We halted at the distance of two 
musket-shots to examine their position and numbers, 
which wc estimated at four thousand; and when we 
had finished our observations, we returned quietly 
the same way we had come. Seeing us retire, the 
Serranos thought that we were afraid of them; they ut- 
tered loud shouts, rushed down the mountain all to- 
gether, and followed us, in disorder, for an hour 
through a rough and difficult country. The ground 
at last became more favourable for cavalry, when 
they moderated their ardour; then halted upon the 
heights, without venturing at first to advance into 
the plain. They sent a few men to exchange shots 
with the skirmishers of our rearguard, which had 
faced about, whilst the infantry and principal part of 
the detachment were passing a wooden bridge, built 
over a torrent which flows at the foot of a barren 
mountain, on whose summit stands the village of 
Teba, like an eagle's nest. 

The women of this village dressed, according to 
the fashion of the country, in red and light blue stuffs, 
had seated themselves on their heels in groupes upon 
the rocks, to view the battle which they foresaw was 
about to take place. Our rear-guard soon drew in 
its skirmishers and began to cross the bridge; these 
women then rose altogether and began to chaunt a 
hymn to the Virgin Mary. At this signal the firing 
commenced, and the Spaniards, hidden on the moun- 
tain side, poured a shower of balls upon us at very 

X 



162 

long shot. We continued to pass the bridge under 
the enemy's fire, without answering it; we could see 
the women come down from the rocks, wrest the 
guns from their husbands' hands, and place them- 
selves nearer to us, in order to force them to go for- 
ward and pursue us beyond the bridge. 

Our rear guard, finding itself pressed closely^ 
went to the right about, and the hussars of the front 
rank opened a well supported fire with their carbines 
on the most forward of the mountaineers, of whom 
they killed two, which arrested the impetuosity of 
the crowd. The women returned precipitately to the 
mountain. About a hundred of the insurgents follow- 
ed us within half a league of Campillos. 

The next day, the 17th, a detachment of fifty hus- 
sars, sent out to make discoveries, found the Serra- 
nos encamped on the other side of the wooden bridge j 
below Teba. Our men advanced close to the bridge, 
and then returned without firing a single shot; the 
enemy took courage, as the day before, and pursued 
the party to our advanced posts. Our intention was 
to draw them into the plain near Campillos, that we 
might have an opportunity of making them feel the 
edgf of our sabres. The insurgents, who were prin- 
cipally armed with fowling-pieces only, had the ad- 
vantage in the mountains, whither we could not fol- 
low them pn horseback; but in a plain, their disor- 
derly mod^' of fighting disabled them from resisting 
a charge of cavalry, however inferior in numbers. 

At ten o'clock in the morning, my landlord came 



163 

to me in a great hurry, with a smile on his lips and 
rubbing his eyes to make them look in tears, ex- 
claiming that we were all ruined, that our posts vvtre 
driven in, that fifteen hundred mountaineers were 
coming down furiously into the plain to surround 
us, whilst the villagers, who had revolted, were at- 
tacking us in the center of the village; and he press- 
ed me in his arms as if he pitied the fate which 
awaited me. 

A report of fire-arms, confused shouts, and the 
sound of trumpets and drums were heard at the 
same moment; our men were running to arms in 
every quarter. One of our posts had been forced 
to retire to the entrance of the village. I immediately 
mounted my horse and collected my detachment. 
The colonel, coming up at this instant, ordered me 
to support the guard which had given way. We 
made a successful charge in the plain, where forty 
of our hussars cut down about a hundred of the 
mountaineers; those who were on the surrounding- 
heights fled in the utmost consternation. We then 
retired, and the plain, which a moment before had 
resounded with the clamour of a cloud of assailants, 
remained silent and strewed with the dead bodies 
of the enemy, who had just been mowed* to the 
ground. 

Whilst we were engaged, the villagers, in the per- 
suasion that we should be totally destroyed, had 
massacred in the streets such of our men as had been 
tardy in going to the place indicated for assembling 



164 

in case of alarm. Our hussars on their return into 
the village put to death every one of the inhabitants 
>vhom they found in arms; with difficulty they were 
prevented from plundering it. After this the insur- 
gents did not venture to show themselves in the 
plains; they marched off that whole day and part of 
the next night, and returned to their mountains in 
the environs of Ronda. 

On the 19th of March general Peremont joined 
us from Malaga with three battalions of infantry, 
one regiment of Polish lancers, and two pieces of 
cannon. We now received the ammunition which we 
stood so much in need of; and the 20th, at six in the 
morning, we set out to retake possession of Ronda. 
We turned aside from our route to levy a contribu- 
tion on the inhabitants of Teba, as a punishment for 
having been in arms against us, although they had 
made their submission to king Joseph, 

Our colonel left his regiment at the foot of the 
mountain on which Teba is situated, and went up 
with only fifty hussars. The inhabitants, informed 
of pur intention, had fled with their most valuable 
effects. Clothes which lay scattered here and there 
indicated the hurry of their departure. Some of the 
houses were broken open b\ our people, to see if 
there was nobody concealed in them; only one poor 
old man was discovered, who far from manifesting 
any alarm uttered txciamalions of joy when our 
hussars entered his dwelling. The commanding 
officer was desirous of availing himself of this man's 



165 

good-will, by obtaining information from him; but 
it was soon discovered that he was out of his senses, 
which circumstance probably had prevented his 
friends or relations from taking him away with them. 

We were nearly two hours without being able 
to find a single individual whom we could, send to 
the inhabitants to let them know that they should 
receive no injury, but on the contrary all be pardon- 
ed, provided they paid a contribution to King Jo- 
seph. We did not wish to make them irreconcilable 
enemies by a rigorous chastisement, and yet it was 
of importance that their revolt should not pass alto- 
gether unpunished. The following expedient was 
employed to draw them from their retreat. The 
hussars burnt damp straw in the chimnies of some 
of the houses; the smoke, driven by the wind to- 
wards the mountain, persuaded the inhabitants that 
we were about to destroy their village. They lost no 
time in sending a deputation, which consisted of the 
alcade of the place and four of the richest proprietors. 
The magistrate wore a scarlet cloak and a laced coat; 
he had loaded himself with all the marks of his dignity, 
believing that in giving himself up to the French, he 
should by his death insure the safety of his native 
place. He promised that the contribution asked for 
should be paid, and we took him with us as an hos- 
tage; he was allowed to return two days afterwards. 

We slept that night at a village only four leagues 
from Campillos. On the 21st we set out early in the 
morning tor Ronda, which we entered without resist- 



166 

ance. The mountaineeifs abandoned the town on our 
approach with so mi^toH precipitation, that they threw 
away their guns and their cloaks in the streets, and 
betook themselves to the mountains through by- 
paths. Some of the hindmost fell under the sabres of 
our hussars. 

We were received as deliverers by a portion of 
the inhabitants. The mountaineers had raised a pair 
of gallows on the main square since our departure, 
for the purpose of punishing such of the towns-peo- 
ple as had favoured the French; and if we had delayed 
our return one day longer, several persons would 
have been executed. In this way private animosities 
would have been gratified under pretext of public 
vengeance. One of the magistrates was about to be 
hanged, because he had some years before refused 
to accept a bribe in some smuggling transaction; a 
poor taylor had been thrown head foremost from a 
high rock and dashed to pieces, because he had serv- 
ed us as an interpreter. 

The mountaineers had entered Ronda at dawn 
of the very day we left it; they traversed the streets 
with deafening cries, and manifested their joy by 
discharging their guns in every direction. All the 
people of the same village arrived together, marching 
in a disorderly manner and followed by their women, 
who differed, as I have already observed, from the 
men only by their dress, by a more lofty stature, 
and by even more roughness of manners. These 
dames insisted that their husbands had conquered 



167 

Ronda from the French, and that every thing in the 
city belonged to them; they would say, one to an» 
other, while stopping before the doors of the hand- 
somest houses, " / take this house for my own; I 
will be a ladi/y and take possession of it in a few days 
with my goats and my family,^'' In the meantime 
they loaded their asses with every thing they could 
lay their hands on, and ceased their plundering only 
when these animals were on the point of sinking un- 
der the weight of their burdens. 

Some of the smugglers stole the horses and port- 
manteau of an English lieutenant, who had joined 
the expedition, without his being able to have the 
robbers punished. The prisons were broken open; 
the prisoners, the moment they were at liberty, has- 
tened to be revenged of their judges and accusers. 
DebttDrs forced receipts from their creditors, and set 
fire to the papers in the public offices, in order to 
destroy the records of mortgages which the towns- 
people had on the property of the mountaineers. 

The commander in- chief of the Serranos had not 
reached Ronda until six hours after our departure. 
He endeavoured at first to establish some sort of 
order in the town, with the assistance of what he 
called his regular troops. Unable to succeed, he 
made use of the following device. He caused the 
public crier to announce that the French were com- 
ing; the mountaineers then assembled in a very short 
time, and the citizens had time to barricade their 
houses. 



168 

The person who exercised the greatest influence 
over these undisciphned hordes was one Cura, a na- 
tive of Valentia, where he had been professor of 
mathematics. Obliged to exile himself from his na- 
tive place in consequence of having killed a man in 
a fit of jealousy, he had taken refuge among the 
smugglers. He secretly circulated a report that he 
was a man of high birth, and that political reasons 
induced him to remain incognito. The mountaineers 
called him the unknown man -with the great cap ^ be- 
cause he affected to wear a cap, in the fashion of the 
country, of excessive size, in order to attract atten- 
tion. His mysterious appearance procured him great 
control over these ignorant spirits; about a month 
after these events, he levied large contributions 
among the mountain villages, under the pretext of 
purchasing arms and ammunition, and endeavoured 
to make his escape with the money; but he was taken 
and punished. 

General Peremont had come with his brigade to 
Ronda, intending to conduct an expedition into the 
heart of the mountains, but was obliged to return to 
Malaga without executing it. He was informed that, 
during his absence, other bands of insurgents had 
attacked that city. Our hussars were again left in 
garrison at Ronda, with two hundred brave soldiers 
of the Polish infantry, who took the place of the 
battalion of king Joseph's guards, which had before 
been with us. 

Ronda is situated on a piece of table-land, very 



169 

much elevated towards the north, but of easy access 
in other directions; it is separated from the moun- 
tains on the south and west, by a beautiful and well 
cultivated valley. The Guadiaro descends from the 
most lofty of these mountains and traverses the town; 
it seems as if an earthquake had made a deep fissure 
in the eminence on which it stands, to afford a pas- 
sage for this little river. The old town, placed on 
the left bank, communicates with the new on the 
opposite side, by a superb stone bridge of a single 
arch; balconies of iron jut out from the stone para- 
pets on both sides of the bridge, and one is struck 
with a sort of terror on seeing, through the iron bars, 
at a depth of more than one hundred and eighty feet, 
the river like a small stream of whitish water issuing 
from the gulph below. A damp mist continually 
rises from the bottom of the abyss, and the eye can 
scarcely distinguish, so small do they seem, the men 
and cattle that are continually ascending and descend- 
ing the winding path, with burdens to and from the 
different mills constructed at the foot of the immense 
terrace of rocks which supports the town. 

From this elevated situation we sometimes saw 
the gardeners of the valley quit their peaceful labours 
to join the mountaineers, when they were coming to 
attack us; at other times we could discover them en- 
gaged in burying their guns when any of our parties 
approached them. 

That part of Ronda which is called the Old Town 
is almost entirely of Moorish construction; the streets 

Y 



170 

are narrow and crooked. The New Town, on the 
contrary, is very regularly built; the squares are 
large and the streets wide and straight. We had no 
difficulty in fortifying the Old Town so as to secure 
it from any sudden attack; by constructing some 
small works and repairing an old castle, it could be 
very well defended by the infantry. Our hussars were 
more specially charged with ihe guard of the New 
Town; we pulled down some old walls and levelled 
the approach to that part of the city, in order that, 
should we be attacked, our cavalry might have an 
opportunity of acting. 

The mountaineers had established their camps on 
the neighbouring ridges, and observed day and night 
what was passing in the city. When our trumpets 
had sounded ihe reveillee at dawn of day, they were 
quickly followed by the shepherds' horns which roused 
the insurgents. They passed whole days in annoying 
our advanced posts on some point or other; when we 
marched upon them they disappeared, but only to 
return again as soon as we had withdrawn. 

When the Serranos attacked us, they uttered loud 
shouts to animate one another; and commenced firing 
Ions; before their shot could reach us. Those who 
were in the rear btlicvcd, on hearing the cries 
and firing, that their companions had met with suc- 
cess, and would hasten to the scene of action in hopes 
of sharing in the credit of the day; they would pass 
those who had preceded them, uttering a thousand 
bravadoes, and before they could perceive their mis- 



171 

take it was too late to escape. We allowed them to 
advance into the little plain around the New Town, 
in order to charge them, and they always fled as 
soon as they had lost a few of their nien. 

The most agreeable pastime of the lower classes 
of the towns-people consisted in hiding themselves 
among the rocks and olive trees at the extremity of 
the suburbs, and firing at our videttes. They would 
leave the town in the morning with their garden 
tools, as if going to work in the fields; there they 
would find their guns, which were concealed among 
the rocks or in the farm-houses; and in the evening 
they would return without arms, to pass the night in 
the midst of us. It happened that some of the hussars 
recognised among the combatants the very men at 
whose houses they were quartered. We could not 
make our search after these people very rigorous; if 
the decree issued by marshal Soult against the Spa- 
nish insurgents had been carried into execution, we 
should have had to punish with death nearly the 
whole population of the country. The mountaineers 
hanged and burnt to death the French whom they 
made prisoners; our soldiers, in their turn, vtry 
rarely gave quarter to the Spaniards whom they 
found in arms. . 

The women, the aged, even the children were 
against us, and served as spies to the enemy. I my- 
self saw a little boy eight years old come and play 
before our horses' heads and offer himself as a guide; 
he led a small party of our men into an ambuscade^ 



172 

and then ran off throwing his cap in the air and shout- 
ing with all his might, " Long live our king Ferdi- 
nand the Seventh!" This was the signal for the ene- 
my to open their fire on us. 

The strength and perseverance of character which 
distinguish the mountaineers supplied any deficiencies 
in their military disciphne; though they could oppose 
no effectual resistance in open ground, and failed in 
the attacks which required military combinations, on 
the other hand they defended themselves admirably 
among their rocks, in their houses, and wherever 
cavalry could not be brought into play. We tried in 
vain to reduce to obedience the inhabitants of Mon- 
tejaque, a hamlet of fifty or sixty cottages, distant 
only half a league from Ronda. 

The inhabitants of the villages in the mountains, 
who dreaded a visit from the French used to send their 
old men, women and children into inaccessible re- 
treats, and conceal their valuable property in caverns. 
The men alone remained to defend their dwellings 
or to make incursions into the open country, whence 
they carried off the cattle of such Spaniards as would 
not declare against us. 

The little town of Grazalema was the principal 
citadel of the mountaineers. Marshal Soult sent a 
column of light troops of three thousand men against 
it; the smugglers defended themselves from house to 
house, and abandoned the place only when they had 
expended all their ammunition. They then escaped 
into the mountain, after killing a considerable num- 



173 

ber of our people; and as soon as the column went 
away, they re-occupied the town. 

A division of three regiments of infantry of the 
line, which was sent a month afterwards to disperse 
anew the insurgents, easily succeeded in driving 
them every where from the field, but failed in taking 
possession of Grazalema. Some smugglers had in- 
trenched themselves in the square which forms the 
center of the town; they had placed mattrasses before 
the windows of the houses in which they had shut 
themselves up. Twelve hussars of the 10th regi- 
ment and forty light infantry-men, who composed 
the advance of the French division, reached this 
square without encountering any resistance, but 
they never got back; all fell under the discharge of 
fire-arms, which was made at the same instant from 
all the windows. Every party which was sent in 
succession to the spot shared the same fate, without 
inflicting the smallest injury on the enemy. Our 
frequent expeditions almost invariably dispersed 
these people without bringing them to submission, 
and our troops returned to Ronda after experiencing 
very severe losses. 

The Serranos completely foiled our efforts, even 
when they were inferior in numbers. They retreated 
from rock to rock on the appearance of our columns, 
never discontinuing their fire; and even when retreat- 
ing, they destroyed whole battalions without affording 
us a chance of revenge. This mode of fighting had 
induced the Spaniards themselves^to nickname them. 



1T4 

mountain hornets^ in allusion to the manner in which 
those obstinate insects torment xW living beings 
who approach their nests. The detachments wliich 
went out of Ronda on various expeditions or recon- 
noitering parlies, were enveloped from the moment 
of their departure to that ot their return by clouds of 
skirmishers. Every convoy that we went to meet 
cost us the lives of several men. We might have 
said in the words of Scripture, that we ate our own 
flesh and drank our own blood m this mglorious war- 
fare, to expiate the injustice of the cause for which 
we were fighting. 

The mountaineers of Grenada and of Murcia were 
not more disposed to submit than those of Rondaj 
the French, attacked on all their points of commu- 
nication, were in every mountainous district of Spain 
in much the same situation as our regiment. Such 
was the repose we enjoyed after having conquered 
the peninsula from the frontier of France to the gates 
of Cadiz. The siege of that city was at this time the 
only military event worthy of attention. 

When our horses had consumed the forage in 
the vicinity of Ronda, we were constrained to ex- 
tend our excursions to a distance, and to send, three 
or four times in each week, parties of thirty or forty 
hussars to collect chopped straw at several leagues 
distance from the town. The weakness of the garri- 
son did not allow of supporting our foragers by de- 
tachments of infantry. Our horsemen were not al- 
ways in sufficient strength to repel the enemy in 



175 

these expeditions; we consequently sought to baffle 
their vigilance, by taking every day a different route, 
or by making long circuits to avoid dangerous passes; 
and yet we were often under the necessity of cutting 
our way back through the parties of insurgents which 
lay before the town. 

Fortune had during a whole month smiled upon 
me; I had been lucky in all the enterprises with 
which I was charged out of the city; and when I 
commanded the main guard, none of our soldiers 
had been killed. The hussars, who to a certain de- 
gree believe in fatality, were beginning to think that 
I was invulnerable; I was however wounded almost 
mortally, on the 1st of May. They told me indeed 
afterwards, by way of consolation, that fate had made 
a mistake; that I ought not to consider myself as less 
fortunate than before, because our adjutant had com- 
mitted an oversight in consulting his roster, and that 
I had been detached instead of one of my brother 
officers, whose star was a malignant one. 

On the 1st of May, then, I was one of a party of 
forty-five hussars commanded by a captain. Our des- 
tination was to fetch straw from some settlements 
near the village of Setenil, about four leagues from 
Ronda. We were attended by about a hundred pea- 
sants and muleteers, who led the mules and asses. 
We set out at five o'clock in the morning; the cap- 
tain and I rode together at the head of the troop. In 
passing a defilee, half a league from the town, wc 
observed to each other that the enemy ^yere very neg- 



176 

ligent not to have hitherto placed an ambuscade at 
this spot, where they might have considerably an- 
noyed us. I was the first to perceive at a distance, 
on going up a hill of considerable elevation, a cloud 
of dust, and then distinctly, on our right, four or 
five hundred armed men advancing through the val- 
ley towards the village of Ariate. I informed the cap- 
tain that I could see the enemy, and that I recognized 
them by their hasty and disorderly mode of marching. 
One of our sergeants assured us that the men we 
saw were muleteers who were returning to Ossuna, 
and vvho had arrived the day before, under an escort 
of two hundred infantry, with biscuit and cartridges 
for our garrison. I insisted that the people I saw 
were enemies, and added that if I commanded the 
detachment, I would immediately charge them while 
they were yet in the open ground; for that if we were 
repulsed, our retreat would still be secure, whereas 
if we continued our march, we should be exposed 
to an attack on our return, in some position unfa- 
vourable to cavalry. The captain was of a dift'erent 
opinion; we continued on our way and soon reached 
the village of Setenil. 

The slowness and ill-humour of the Spanish mu- 
leteers who accompanied us excited some suspi- 
cions, which were not diminished by seeing, just as 
we were preparing to return to Ronda, a mounted 
peasant, who was watching our march from a distant 
height, and who soon galloped off as if to give notice 
of our approach. 



177 

When we had done foraging, we resumed the 
road by which we had come; we placed the convoy 
of loaded mules between a vanguard of twelve hus= 
sars and the principal part of the detachment, headt d 
by the captain and myself. When we arrived within 
two hundred yards of the defilee which we most fear» 
ed to pass, I perceived a countryman perched upon 
an olive-tree, of which he was cutting down the 
branches with an axe. I galloped ahead of the de- 
tachment and approached the man, of whom 1 en- 
quired if he had seen any of the Serranos. He was 
one himself, as I afterwards learnt, and was cutting 
these branches to obstruct our passage. He answer- 
ed that the work he was engaged in did not allow 
him to busy himself with what was passing in the 
neighbourhood. The captain at the same instant was 
questioning a child of five or six years of age, who 
answered in a trembling and low voice, as if he was 
afraid of being overheard; we paid little attention to 
him, because we soon observed our advance and the 
head of the convoy come out of the other end of the 
defilee and begin to ascend the opposite hill; we had 
to pass over a narrow and slippery path, which obli- 
ged us to march in single file, and which was four 
or five hundred paces in length; on both sides was 
a very thick garden hedge. The captain repeated 
the morning's remark, that it was fortunate for us 
the enemy had not placed an ambuscade at this 
spot. Scarcely had he uttered the words, when 
two gr three shots were fired from behind the hedge^ 

Z 



178 

which killed the three last mules of the convoy, and 
the horse of the trumpeter who immediately prece- 
ded us; our horses halted of their own accord. 

The captain was before me; but he was mounted 
on a steed which had belonged to an officer who had 
been killed some days before on a similar occasion, 
and the animal hesitated. On seeing this, I set spurs 
to my charger and passed him; I leapt over the trum- 
peter's horse as well as over the loaded mules which 
had fallen, and passed the defilee alone. The Ser- 
ranos, who were concealed by the hedges, supposed 
that the detachment was close at my heels, and 
precipitately poured the whole of their fire upon me, 
as I went by. I was struck by two balls only; one 
pierced my left thigh, the other entered my body. 

The captain followed me at some distance; he ar- 
rived safe at the other end of the defilee, and of the 
whole detachment there were but the four last hus- 
sars who were killed, because the enemy required 
some minutes to reload their arms, and make a se- 
cond discharge. The serjeant who closed the file 
had his horse killed under him; he counterfeited 
death, slipped into the bushes, and arrived at Ronda 
in the night without having received a single wound. 

When we had rallied and formed our detachment 
on the other side of the pass, I informed the captain 
that I was wounded, that my strength was beginning 
to fail, and that I would proceed to Ronda by a cross- 
path, which was excessively steep but which short- 
ened the distance considerably. He advised me t» 



179 

stay with the troops, which were going half a league 
round by the plain, where there were no enemies, 
in order not to expose them unnecessarily to a se- 
cond attack. I felt that I could not support so long 
a ride, and took the path, preceded by a hussar who 
led my horse by the bridle. As I was losing much 
blood, I was obliged to exert myself to avoid faint- 
ing; if I had fallen from my horse, I should infallibly 
have been massacred. I held by the pummel of my 
saddle and made vain efforts to spur on my horse 
with the only leg I could move; the poor animal 
went no faster for all mv exertions, and stumbled 
at every step; a ball had traversed his body through 
and through. 

When I got within a quarter of a league of the 
town, my horse could scarcely put one foot before 
the other. The hussar who accompanied me set off 
at a gallop for a post stationed at the top of the moun- 
tain, and I moved on a few steps by myself, hardly 
seeing any thing before me or hearing the shot, 
which some fellows who were pretending to cut 
wood, fired at me from a distance. At last a party of 
soldiers joined me, and carried me to my quarters 
on my horse blanket. 

The Spanish family at whose house I was lodged, 
came out to meet me, and would not allow me to 
be conducted to the military hospital, where an epi- 
demical fever was raging; I should in all probability, 
like many others, have been cured of my wounds 
there by the hand of death. My landlord's family 



180 

had hitherto treated me with cold and reserved po- 
liteness, considering me as one of the enemies of 
their country. From respect for this feeling, 1 had 
myself had little communication with them. But 
when I was wounded, ihey manifested a lively inte- 
rest in my situation, and treated me with that gene- 
rosity and charity which eminently mark the Spa- 
nish character. They said that since I could no longer 
do injury to their country, they regarded me as one 
of themselves; and without relaxing their aUentions 
one single moment, for fifty days they took every 
possible care of me. 

On the 4th of May, at break of day, the insur- 
gents attacked Ronda in greater force than they had 
yet done. Some bullets passed so near the window 
by the side of which my bed was placed, that it was 
thought necessary to carry it into another room. My 
landlord and his wife soon came to announce to me, 
while they endeavoured to preserve an air of tran- 
quillity, that the mountaineers were at the end of 
the street, that they were gaining ground in our 
direction and that the old town was on the point of 
being carried by assault. They added that they 
would take precautions to shelter me from the rage 
of these people, until the arrival of general Lerrano 
Valdenebfo, who was their relation; and they care- 
fully concealed my arms, my military dress, and 
every thing which might attract the enemy's atten- 
tion They then conveyed me, with the assistance 
of their servants, to the top of the houbc, behind a 



181 

little chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, consider- 
ing this consecrated spot as an inviolable asylum. 
Two priests of their acquaintance were sent for, 
who took post near the street door to defend the en- 
trance, and if necessary, to protect me by their pre- 
sence. 

An aged lady, the mother of the mistress of the 
house, rt^mained alone with me and betook herself 
to her prayers; she turned her beads more or less 
fast, as the cries of the combatants and the discharge 
of fire-arms announced that the danger encreased or 
diminished. About noon the tumult was less dis- 
tinct, and shortly afterwards entirely ceased. The 
enemy was beaten back at every point; my brother- 
officers came, as soon as they had dismounted, to 
give me an account of the battle. 

The 2d hussars received, some days after this 
event, orders to go to Santa- Maria; they were re- 
placed by the 43d regiment of the line, and I was 
left alone of my corps at Ronda. I was unacquaint- 
ed with any officers of the new garrison, and hence- 
forward was visited by none of the French, except 
an adjutant of infantry, who came from time to time 
to enquire if I was not yet dead, or well enough to 
travel; he was impatient to occupy my lodging. 

My landlord was constant in his kindness and at- 
tentions to me af er the departure of my comrades; 
he and his family passed several hours every day in 
my room; and when I began to gain strength, they 
assembled some of their neighbours every evening, 



182 

who conversed and sometimes formed little concerts 
near my bed, to make me forget my sufferings; they 
sang national airs accompanied by the guitar. 

My landlady's mother had taken a great friendship 
for me, ever since the day when she had prayed with 
so much fervour for my safety during the assault. 
Her second daughter was a nun in the convent of 
nobles; this young lady often sent to enquire after 
my health, and little baskets of perfumed lint, co- 
vered with rose leaves, accompanied her messages. 
The nuns of all the convents in Ronda doubled their 
usual fasts and austerities after our arrival in Anda- 
lusia; they passed the greater part of each night in 
putting up prayers for the success of the Spanish 
cause; and their days were employed in preparing 
medicines for the wounded French. This union of 
patriotism and Christian charity was not rare in 
Spain. 

On the 18th of June I rose from my bed for the 
first time since my wound. I was obhged to under- 
go the melancholy apprenticeship of learning to walk 
on crutches, for I had entirely lost the use of one 
of my legs. I went to visit the horse which had been 
wounded under me; he had got quite well, but did 
not at first know me; by this I judged how much I 
must be altered. I set out from Ronda, on the 22d, 
on an ammunition wagon, which was going with a 
strong escort to bring cartridges ifrom Ossuna. I 
parted from my kind hosts with the same regret that 
one feels at first leaving the paternal roof. They top 



183 

were sorry for my departure; the kindness with which 
they had loaded me had endeared me to them. 

From Ossuna I went to Essica, and thence to 
Cordova. Bands of Spanish partizans, two or three 
hundred strong, traversed the country in every di- 
rection; when pursued, they retired to the moun- 
tains which separate Andalusia from La Mancha 
and Estremadura, or to those near the coast. These 
bands, called guerillas, kept up the fermentation which 
prevailed throughout the country, and secured the 
communications between Cadiz and the interior of 
Spain. The people were made to believe that the 
marquis de la Romana had beaten the French near 
Truxillo, or that the English had sallied from Gi- 
braltar and completely defeated them near the sea. 
These rumours, skilfully disseminated, were always 
received with transport, notwithstanding their im- 
probability; hope, constantly renewed, excited par- 
tial insurrections on one point or another, and re- 
ports of pretended victories, circulated at proper 
seasons, often occasioned real advantages. 

At some distance from Cordova, there was a band 
of thieves which had been for many years notorious; 
these robbers by profession did not renounce the 
habit of plundering Spanish travellers, but in order 
to acquit themselves of the obligation which every 
citizen contracts at his birth, of shedding his blood 
for his country when invaded by foreigners, they 
waged war against the French, and attacked their 



184 

detachments even when there was no prospect of 
plunder. 

On leaving Andalusia, I travelled through La 
Mancha; I was obliged to wait some days at each 
station for the return of the escorts which regularly 
conveyed stores for the siege of Cadizi Sometimes, 
tired of staying a long time in unpleasant quarters, I 
abandoned myself to chance, and ventured to pro- 
ceed alone from one post to another. The officers 
commanding posts of correspondence could furnish 
escorts only for the indispensable service of the army;^ 
they often lost several men in guarding a single cou- 
rier over a distance of a few leagues. 

King Joseph had no means of levying the taxes 
regularly;* columns of light troops were in vain sent 
through the country; the inhabitants either fled to 
their fastnesses, or defended their dwellings. The 
soldiers sacked the villages, but the contributions 
did not come in; peaceful individuals sometimes 
paid for all the rest; but they were afterwards all 
grievously pimished by the guerillas for not having 
fled on the approach of the French. The people of 
La Mancha, as well as those of the neighbouring 
provinces, were exasperated by these various perse- 
cutions, and the number of our enemies encreased 
from day to day. New-Castille, which I also travel- 
led through, was not more tranquil than La Mancha. 
Some Spanish partizans had been on the point of 

•See note 19. 



185 

making king Joseph prisoner at one of his country 
scats near Madrid; and they often carried off French- 
men at the j^ates and sometimes even in the streets 
of that capital. 

I remained nearly a month at Madrid, waiting for 
an opportunity of leaving it. It was easy to arrive 
there from Bayonne, because one could travel under 
the escort of numerous detachments which were sent 
to reinforce the armies; but it was necessary to be 
crippled, in order to obtain permission to return to 
France. The board of physicians had received the 
most rigid orders on this subject, and leave of ab-. 
sence was never given to any officer or soldier, un- 
less there existed no chance of his recovery. I was 
of the number thus sent back to France; I thought 
myself happy at withdrawing, even at such a price, 
from an urjust and inglorious war, in which the sen- 
timents of my heart continually disavowed the inju» 
ries that my arm was compelled to inflict. 

Our party consisted of a numerous caravan of dis- 
banded officers, who were travelling home under an 
escort of seventy five infantry soldiers only. We 
formed a platoon of officers, under the command of 
the one who had been longest wounded, that we 
might at least die in arms if we were attacked; for 
we were unable to defend ourselves, many of us 
being obliged to be tied on the horses which we 
rode. 

In our convoy there were two madmen; the first 
was an officer of hussars, who had lost his reason in 

2 A 



186 

consequence of some deep wounds on the head; he 
marched on foot, because his horse and arms had 
been taken from him, lest he should make his escape 
or commit some violence. He had not forgotten, in 
spite of his madness, the dignity of his grade and 
the name of his regiment; sometimes he uncovered 
his head and showed his wounds; these he pretended 
to have received in imaginary combats which he was 
incessantly recounting. One day our convoy was at- 
tacked during the march; he escaped the vigilance 
of the men who had charge of him, and with his 
former intrepidity fell upon the enemy with nothing 
but a switch in his hand, which he called the magic 
sceptre of the great king of Morocco, his prede- 
cessor. The other madman was an old Flemish mu- 
sician belonging to the light infantry, in whose brain 
the heat of the Spanish wines had fixed, for the re- 
mainder of his days, an inexhaustible fund of gaiety. 
He had exchanged his clarinet for a fiddle, on which 
instrument he had been used to play in his youth, 
and he marched along in the middle of our melan- 
choly convoy, dancing and playing together, with- 
out ever being tired. 

No solitary traveller encountered us over the long 
and silent road which we were travelling; we only 
met, every two or three days, convoys of ammuni- 
tion or detachments of troops; these usually took up 
their quarters with us in ruinous dwellings, whose 
doors and windows had been carried off for fuel by 
the French troops. Instead of the crowds of children 



187 

and idlers which, in time of peace, come out to meet 
strangers at the entrance of the viliiiges, we found in 
them only small posts of French soldiers, which pre- 
sented themselves from behind palisades or other 
temporary defences, and called to us to halt, while 
they enquired our business. Sometimes, in a desert- 
ed hamlet, a sentinel would unexpectedly make his 
appearance, perched on the top of some old tower, 
like the solitary owl in the midst of a ruin. 

The nearer we approached the confines of France, 
the more our danger from the partizans encreased. 
At every station which we came to we found de- 
tachments from different parts of the peninsula, 
which were waiting to join us. Whole battalions, 
whole regiments, reduced to a few individuals only, 
were bringing back their eagles or their standards, 
to go and recruit in France, Italy, Switzerland, Ger- 
many or Poland. We left Spain at the close of the 
month of July, twenty days after Ciudad Rodrigo, 
a strong fortified town in the province of Salamanca, 
had surrendered to the French. 



These memoirs ought, perhaps, to terminate 
here, since I was no longer an eye witness of the 
events connected with the Spanish war; but having 
collected, during a year's residence in England, 
documents which could not be procured upon the 
continent, I venture to add to my own narrative that 
of the campaign in Portugal, which was a master- 
piece both of national and military defence. 



CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL. 



AFTER the campaign of Austria and the peace 
concluded at Vienna in 1809, France was free from 
war in the north, and all Europe believed once more 
that Spain and Portugal were about to be overwhelm- 
ed by the immense forces at the disposal of the empe- 
ror Napoleon, who had declared that he would drive 
the English out of the peninsula, and that before 
the lapse of a twelvemonth his triumphant eagles 
should soar over the towers of Lisbon. He had ac- 
cordingly sent powerful reinforcements into Spain 
for the invasion of Portugal. 

The French army destined for this expedition was 
more than eighty thousand men strong; it was com- 
manded by marshal Massena, and divided into three 
corps under marshals Ney, Junot, and Rcynier. Of 
these the two first had formed a junction near Sala- 
manca, and occupied the country between the Duero 
and the Tagus; the third, under general Reynier, 
was in Estremadura opposite to the frontier of Alen- 
tejo, communicating by its right at Alcantara with 
the left of marshal Ney. A corps of reserve com- 



190 

manded by general Drouet was, in addition, assem- 
bling at Valladoiid, to reinforce and support the in- 
vading army. 

Tlie forces of Lord Wellington opposed to those 
of Mass^na, consisted of thirty thousand English 
and as many Portuguese soldiers. The Portuguese 
regency had, moreover, under arms fifteen thousand 
regular troops, differenr flying corps of militia com- 
manded by leaders of their own nation or by English 
officers, and the levies in mass, known by the appel- 
lation of ordenanzas, which were computed by the 
English at only forty-five thousand men, but which, 
in case of invasion, amounted in fact to the whole 
armed population of Portugal. They were animated 
against the French by patriotism, hatred, vengeance, 
and by resentment for the recent evils they had en- 
dured during the two preceding years, from the ex- 
peditions, unsuccessful as they were, of Junot and 
Soult. These undi^.ciplined bands did incalculable 
injury to the French while defending the passes of 
their mountains, but became useless out of their own 
districts; and it was for this reason that^Lord Wel- 
lington would never, notwithstanding the provoca- 
tions of the French, abandon the defensive line which 
he occupied on the frontiers of Portugal, north and 
south of the Tagus. The British commander was 
besides disposed to avoid a pitched battle in the plains 
of Salamanca, where his enemy could display a nu- 
merous and formidable cavalry. 

After the capture of Ciudad-Rodrigo, the French 



191 

crossed the Coa, drove in the British advanced posts 
and invested Almeida, a frontier town of Portugal, 
which they took by capitulation on the 27th of Au- 
gust, after thirteen days of open trenches. 

General Reynier's corps left Spanish Estremadura, 
crossed the Tagus at Alcantara, and concentrated 
itself on the two other French corps near Almeida. 
The British corps, which was opposed to Reynier 
in the direction of Elvas and Portalegre, traversed 
by a corresponding movement the Tagus at Villa 
Velha, and the whole army under Lord Wellington 
retired by the left bank of the Mondego, to the im- 
pregnable position of La Sierra de Murcella, behind 
the Alva. The French left the environs of Almeida 
on the 15th of September, entered the valley watered 
by the Mondego, crossed that river at Celorico, and 
then re-crossed it at the bridge of Fornos. Massena 
was thus leading his army on the right bank of the 
Mondego, with the intention of occupying, by rapid 
marches, the city of Co'imbra, which he expected 
to find defenceless, as the British had retreated by 
the opposite side of the river. The French reached 
Vizeu on the 21st; here they were detained two days 
waiting for their artillery, whose progress had been 
impeded by the badness of the roads, and the attacks 
of the Portuguese militia. On the 24th their advan- 
ced guards found those of the British posted on the 
opposite bank of the Dao; these they forced back 
after repairing the bridges which had been broken 
down. Wellington had rapidly re-crossed from the 



192 

left to the right bank of the Mondego, to throw his 
army into the defilees of the mountains which cover 
Coimbra; he had left only one brigade of infantry 
and one division of cavalry in his former position of 
the Sierra de Murcella. 

The French corps arrived in succession on the 
25th and 26th at the foot of the Sierra de Busaco, 
whose summits they found occupied by the Anglo- 
Portuguese army; at six o'clock in the morning of 
the 27th they marched in columns against the right 
and center of the enemy by the two roads which 
lead to Coimbra through the village of San Antonio 
de Cantaro and the convent of Busaco; these roads 
were cut with trenches in several places, and defend- 
ed by artillery; the mountain over which they pass 
is moreover covered with rugged rocks and of ex- 
tremely difficult access. 

The French column which attacked the British 
right advanced with intrepidity, in spite of the artil- 
lery and light troops which opposed them; it reach- 
ed the lop of the mountain, after suffering con- 
siderable loss, and was beginning to display into 
line with great coolness and the most perfect re- 
gularity, when it was once more attacked by su- 
perior numbers and forced to fall back. It soon, 
however rallied, made a second charge, and was 
again repulsed. The French battalions, which ad- 
vanced upon the convent at the point where the left 
and center divisions of the British joined, were in 
the same manner forced to give way before they 



193 

could reach that post, and left on the ground general 
Simon, wounded by two musket-balls, and a consi- 
derable number more of wounded officers and soldiers. 

The English and Portuguese occupied, on the 
ridge of the mountains, a position whic!' formed the 
arch of a circle and embraced by its extremities the 
ground over which the French were advancing;* the 
allied army could distinguish their smallest move- 
ments below, and was enabled to assemble before- 
hand a large force at each point of attack; to this cir- 
cumstance is the result of ihe action principally as- 
cribable. The French lost eighteen hundred men in 
the diffi:rent charges, and had nearly three thousand 
wounded; the English and Portuguese had only 
twelve hundred and thirty-five men killed and 
wounded. 

Marshal Massena judging lord Wellington's po- 
sition unassailable in front, determined to turn it; he 
kept up the action by skirmishers until night, and 
then sent a body of troops by the mountain road 
which leads from Mortagao to Oporto. In conse- 
quence of this movement Wellington abandoned his 
position at Busaco. 

The French entered Coimbra the 1st of October, 
and on the 12th after eleven days of forced marches, 
during which they were drenched with rain, they ar- 
rived at Alenquer, distant nine leagues from Lisbon. 
They had reached almost the extremity of Portugal 



* See note 20. 



194 

and already regarded the country as finally subdued; 
they were persuaded that the English thought now 
only of re-embarking their forces; they counted on 
overtaking them in a very few days, forcing them to 
a battle when in the hurry of departure, and over- 
whelming them with superior numbers. 

But the parties sent out to reconnoitre found lord 
Wellington's army intrenched in a position which it 
was impracticable to attack or to turn, between the 
sea and the Tagus, on the chain of mountains which 
extends from Alhandra to Torres- Vedras and the 
mouth of the Sisandro.* Passes, already strong by 
nature, were lined from space to space with a for- 
midable artillery; art had added numerous fortifica- 
tions from whence death could be dealt on an assail- 
ing force without danger to the defenders. Silence, 
order and quiet prevailed in the British and Portu- 
guese posts throughout the extent of the advanced 
peninsula, which environs the city of Lisbon. Some 
gun boats, stationed in the Tagus, flanked the right 
of the position; a cannon ball from one of which on 
the very first day killed general Saint-Croix, who 
had advanced to an eminence, to observe the enemy. 
The French endeavoured in vain to provoke lord 
Wellington to come out and give them battle; this 
modern Fabius remained motionless within his lines, 
and coolly looked down on his adversary from his 
elevated site. Wisely sparing of the blood of his sol- 

* Vide note 2 1 . 



195 

diers, he refused to shed it in pursuit of personal re- 
nown and to risk in one conflict the fate of the nation 
which he was charged to defend. It was to the ven- 
geance of the natives of the invaded country that 
he consigned the French; and by adhering to a deeply 
combined plan, he was about to enlist against them 
famitie and disease, those unavoidable attendants on 
conquering armies, when they are not seconded by 
the good will of the population which surrounds 
thtm. 

On the summons of lord Wellington and in con- 
formity to the orders of the Portuguese regency, all 
the inhabitants of the valley of Mondego and part of 
those on the northern shore of the Tagus had aban- 
doned their dwellings. The men of mature age had 
retired with their cattle to the mountains, taking no- 
thing but their arms with them; and as the French 
approached, an immense crowd of old men, women, 
children, priests and nuns had simultaneously de- 
stroyed their own supplies, for the purpose of de- 
priving the enemy of them, arid had retired to Lis- 
bon, under the protection of the British army. 

The charity of the various convents, enlightened 
by patriotism and assisted by numerous alms, fur- 
nished during the first few days the means of sub- 
sistence to the voluntary exiles, who had thus trusted 
to Providence for the salvation of their country. In 
the streets, and squares of Lisbon, as well as in the 
vicinity of that city, behind the British intrenchmeiits, 
a camp of unarmed individuals was established, 



196 

which proved almost as useful to the cause of Por- 
tugal, as that of the warriors destined to defend the 
country by force of arms. 

In their rapid progress, the French, to use their 
own expressions, ha'.^ traversed between Almeida 
and Alenquer " only deserted towns and villages; 
they had found the mills destroyed, the wine poured 
out in the streets, the grain burnt, every article of 
furniture broken to pieces; they had not seen a sin- 
gle horse, mule, ass, cow or goat." They had lived 
on the cattle which were driven with the army, and 
on the biscuit which had been distributed, at their 
entrance into Portugal, for a limited number of days; 
for they counted with certainty on obtaining, by con- 
quest, possession of the immense resources of one 
of the greatest commercial cities in Europe. 

Unexpectedly arrested at the moment when they 
thought themselves within reach of the object of their 
labours, they were reduced to subsist on whatever 
the soldie^-s could individually procure for them- 
selves; chance, necessity, natural activit)/ and long 
acquired habits of a wandering and military life as- 
sisted tiiem in discovering the provisions which the 
country people had buritd or concealed in various 
ways. The French were surrounded on every side 
and their supplies were frequently intercepted by 
bands of light troops, long ere they could reach them 
before the lines of Torres- Vtdras. The city of 
Coimbra, where they had left a garrison and the 
necessary officers for the formadon of magazines 



197 

and stores, as well as their sick and wounded, 
amountii.i^ to five thousand men, hari been retaken 
as early as the 7th of October, by the Portuguese 
militia; other French posts on the right of the Mon- 
dego, had shared the same fate. 

The corps that were commanded by the Portu- 
guese generals Sylveira and Bacellar, and those 
under the English officers Trant, Miller, Wilson 
and Grant, occupied the roads by which must pass 
the convoys of provisions and ammunition for Mas- 
sena's army. His right flank was moreover harassed 
by sorties from the Portuguese garrisons of Peniche, 
Ourem and Obidos; the armed peasants joined the 
militia in their attacks on the detachments and fo- 
raging parties of the French, who could procure 
subsistence only at the expense of daily sacrifices of 
life. 

Whilst this petty warfare was waging with all the 
activity inspired by a spirit of vengeance and nation- 
al hatred, on their flanks and rear, the English, al- 
ways watchful within their lines, enjoyed perfect, 
tranquillity and lost not a single man.*^ Their vi- 
dettes never fired upon the French videttes, and the 
advanced posts of each side never sought to provoke 
or fatigue each other by false attacks. This profound 
calm, which existed only on the front of the two 
armies, was the result of that tacit convention which 
usually establishes itself between troops of the line; 

* See Note 22, 



198 

the latter feel neither hatred nor passion against each 
other even when. they fight, because they have but 
an indirect interest in the cause which they defend. 

The French remained before the lines of Torres- 
Vedras, supporting patiently every privation, in the 
hope of soon reducing their opponents to despair. 
They supposed that the immense crowds of inhabi- 
tants of all ages and sexes, which had retired before 
them and were shut up with the population of the 
capital in a narrow and barren space, would starve 
the enemy's army and oblige thirm either to fight or 
to re-embark; but the English and Portuguese had 
the vast octan behind them, and their numerous 
shipping communicated freely with both hemis- 
pheres. Provisions were in the first place forwarded 
from Great Britain and the Brazils, and fleets of 
merchant ships, attracted by the prospect of profit, 
brought in abundance to the shores of the Tagus the 
products of Africa and America, as well as the less 
distant supplies which could be drawn from the yet 
uninvaded Spanish and Portuguese provinces. 

The French, weakened by daily losses and by 
disease, the sure concomitant of scarcity and inac- 
tion, were soon themselves reduced to the situation 
to which they had hoped to bring their adversaries. 

The river Zezere and the town of Abrantes an- 
noyed the detachments which were sent to forage in 
upper Estremadura; and the Tagus, of which the 
bridges had been destroyed, separated them on the 
left from lower Estremadura and Alentejo. These 



199 

provinces had not yet been visited; their proximity 
added to the anxiety of the French, suffering as they 
did, to take possession of them. They made several 
unsuccessful attempts to secure a passage over the 
Tagus, in order to occupy those provinces; among 
others they threatened the inhabitants of Chamiisca, 
a small town on the opposite side of that river, with 
the destruction of their houses if they did not bring 
over their boats; the fishermen to whom the boats 
belonged, answered this menace by burning them. 

The country immediately rose in arms, and the 
English crossed a division of infantry and one of 
cavalry to the other side of the river, to oppose any 
enterprise the French might make there. Lord 
Wellington had received a reinforcement of ten 
thousand Spaniards under the marquis de la Ro- 
mana, and employed on shore a part of the crews 
of the British fleet; by which means he was enabled 
to detach the necessary force to guard the banks of 
the Tagus, without weakening his lines. 

After remaining more than a month before Torres- 
Vedras, the French found themselves at last totally 
without the means of subsistence; they raised their 
camp on the night between the 14th and 15th of 
November, and commenced their retreat in order to 
take up a position at Santarem, behind the Rio 
Major. The order and silence observed by them at 
their departure were such, that the English videttes 
were aware of the absence of the French advanced 
posts only on the following morning. 



200 

The British sent reinforcements to the troops 
which they had on the south side of the i'agus, ap- 
prehending that Massena's movement was intended 
for the passage of that river; their army left its lines, 
followed the track of the French, and on the 19th 
advanced in columns of attack near to the Rio Major 
opposite to Santarem, apparently intending to force 
the passage of that river; but this project was aban- 
doned on seeing the strength of the French position. 
Lord Wellington established his head quarters at 
Cartaxo, placing his advanced posts on the right 
bank of the Rio Major, between it and the lines of 
Torres- Vedras, so that he could fall back to the 
latter in case the French attacked him with superior 
forces. 

Santarem is situated on the ridge of a chain of 
elevated and almost perpendicular mountains, before 
which stretches another chain of hills somewhat 
lower, where was drawn up the first line of the 
French army; at the foot of these heights flows the 
Rio Major and beyond it the Tagus. The British 
liad to march over a considerable distance of mar hy 
ground, by two causeys, which as well as the bridge 
were completely commanded by artillery. 

Marshal Massena had skiltuUy selected and forti- 
fied the position of Santarem, with the intention of 
keeping the English in check, with a few troops, on 
the Rio Major, and of extending his cantonments as 
far as the river Zezere, over which he threw two 
bridges; he at the same time occupied both shores 



201 

of this river by a division of infantry, in order to 
watch the town of Abrantes and to protect the de» 
tachments which went out to forage in Upper Es- 
tremadura. He wished to secure a communication 
with Spain by the way of Thomar, until the rein- 
forcements which he was expecting and which were 
indispensable to the continuance of his operations 
after the heavy losses he had sustained, had driven 
the Portuguese militia from the posts they had pos- 
sessed themselves of on the roads leading to the 
valley of Mondego. 

The corps of reserve commanded by general 
Drouet had left Valladoiid on the 12th of October, 
on its advance to the frontiers of Portugal; and the 
divirnion under general Gardanne, which had been 
left in garrison at Ciudad-Rodrigo and Almeida, had 
abandoned those places to join the army of Massena; 
when it had arrived, on the i4th of November, with- 
in a few leagues of the first French posts, this divi- 
sion suddenly moved back towards the Spanish fron- 
tier. 'I hey were led into error respecting the pos- 
ture of affairs by the great numbers of Portuguese 
irregulars who harassed them from the moment of 
their entrance into Portugal, and who had even car- 
ried off their advanced guard Gardanne's division 
retreated upon the corps of general Drouet, with 
which it again entered Portugal in the month of De- 
cember. 

This corps proceeded by the valley of Mondego,, 
and joined Massena's main army after dispersmg the 

2C 



202 

Portuguese militia, but without having been able 
to destroy them, as was constantly the case; for 
the Portuguese general Sylveira attacked again, 
at the end of the month, the division of Claperede 
which had been left at Ti*ancoso and Pinhel, in the 
district of Coa, to guard the communications of the 
army of Portugal with Spain. General Claperede 
assembled his division and beat Sylveira, whom he 
pursued to the Duero; but was soon forced to retrace 
his steps to Trancoso and Guarda by the movements 
of other bands of militia under the Portuguese gene- 
ral Bacellar and colonel Wilson, which threatened 
his flanks and rear on the Pavia and at Castro Diaro. 

These Portuguese bands never attacked any but 
the weak points of the French, their advanced posts, 
their rear-guards, detachments, small garrisons or 
insulated battalions, and thus did them incalculable 
mischief; it was impossible to destroy them on ac- 
count of their numbers and their perfect knowledge 
of the country. When dispersed at one point, they 
rallied at another; the peasantry in every district join- 
ed them in arms when an expedition was announced. 
General Drouet went to Leyria, occupying, in con- 
junction with the other corps of the French army, 
the country which extends between the Ocean and 
the Tagus in the direction of Punhete and Santarem. 

Masse na was engaged in constructing a great 
number of boats, for the purpose of throwing bridges 
over the Tagus; this was a difficult undertaking in 
a country deserted by its inhabitants, and offering 



203 

in other respects but few resources at any time. 
The Britibh troops that occupied Miigen, x\Inierin, 
Chamusca, and San-Brito on the opposite shore 
could see all these preparations, and were erecting 
heavy batteries on their side to counteract the threat- 
ened attempt. 

It was a matter of as much importance to the En- 
glish to prevent, as it was to the French to tiftct 
the passage of the river; for the fate of Portugal and 
the ssjccess of the ulterior operations of both parties 
appeared at that time to depend upon the measure. 
If Massena succeeded in crossing the Tagus, he 
would oblige the English to divide their forces and 
to weaken themselves by exteftding their line of 
operation to both sides of the river. The positions at 
Torres- Vedras, less guarded and without a sufficient 
number of men to defend them, might then be car- 
ried, at the expense of some thousands of lives, by 
a French force advancing from Leyria. If, on the 
other hand, the British concentrated all their strength 
at Torres- Vedras, the French would follow the 
course of the Tagus after having crossed the river, 
and possess themselves of the small peninsula in 
which are situated the towns of Palmela and Setubal; 
they would command the mouth of the Tagus from 
the southern side, and cut off the communication 
of Lisbon with the sea; lastly, they might bombard 
that capital from the heights of Almada, which are 
immediately opposite to it. 

Marshals Soult and Mortier arrived at Merlda on 



204 

the 9th of January, with all the disposable troops of 
the ariny of Andalusia, intending to besiege Badajos 
and Elvas, to oblige lord Wellington to divide his 
forces for the defence of this part of the frontier, and 
thus to co-operate with Massena. On hearing of the 
approach of the French to the frontiers of Alentejo, 
the English detached more troops, under generals 
Hill and Beresford, to the sourh of the Tagus; and 
the inhabitants of that part of Portugal prepared to 
desert the country and famish the French, agreeably 
to the system of defence which lord Wellington had 
so successfully adopted on the right bank of that 
river. 

The marquis de la Romana sent general Mendi- 
zabal to the relief of Badajos, with the ten thousand 
Spaniards who had followed him to Torres- Vedras. 
La Romana was labouring under the malady of 
which he died on the 24th of January at Cattaxo, 
deeply regretted by the Spaniards and English, and 
esteemed even by his enemies for having never des- 
paired of his country's cause, and for having con- 
stantly supported the war, amidst every reverse, with 
that activity and perseverance which usually apper- 
tain only to the victorious. Marshals Soult and Mor- 
tier took Olivenga on the 23d of January; they then, 
on the 19th of February, crossed the Gevora and 
the Guadiana, and surprised the Spanish forces un- 
der general Mendizabal in their camp, where they 
cut them in pieces. 

In the mean time Massena's army had consumed 



205 

all the provisions in the country occupied by it on 
the right of the Tagus, and his foragers extended 
their excursions to twenty leagues around. A con- 
siderable portion of the troops was continually em- 
ployed in providing for the wants of the rest, and a 
precarious subsistence w as daily purchased by heavy 
losses. Marshal Junot learnt that the British had col- 
lected a quantity of wine and wheat at Rio Majorj 
and set out at the head of two regiments of cavalry 
and some infantry to get possession of it. The Bri- 
tish retreated in time; but Junot was wounded in a 
slight skirmish between his advance and the enemy's 
rear-guard. The cavalry, which ought to constitute 
as it were the eyes and arms of a great army, being 
destined to guard and secure its supplies, was a bur- 
den to the French by its numbers, on account of 
the difficulty of obtaining provender; and was often 
entirely useless to them in a hilly and broken coun- 
try, where it was incessantly harassed by clouds of 
peasants and militia. 

The hatred and irritation of the inhabitants were 
increased in proportion to the duration of the war, by 
the prolonged privations which they suffered. Even 
the most timid of the peasantry, who had fled into 
the mountains for tranquillity, were forced from their 
retreats by despair and hunger. They came down 
into the vallies, hid themselves near the roads, and 
waited for the French in difficult passes, to plunder 
them of the supplies which the latter had themselves 
been plundering. A countryman from the neigh- 



206 

bourhood of Thomar had chosen for his retreat a 
cavern near that town, and killed with his own hand, 
in the month of February, more than thirty French- 
men whom he succeeded in surprising separately, 
and took from them about fifty horses and mules.* 

The boldness of the Spanish guerillas had increas- 
ed, since a considerable part of the French forces 
had been removed to Portugal. Some of the chiefs 
who, seven months before, had only a few hundred 
men under their command, now were at the head of 
formidable divisions, and frequently carried off whole 
convoys of ammunition and provisions, intended for 
Massena's army. The French convoys had nearly 
two hundred leagues to travel through an enemy's 
country in full insurrection, before they could reach 
their destination; they were composed of muleteers 
pressed into the service from the south of France, 
and of Spanish peasants, who exposed themselves 
with great repugnance to the almost certain risk of 
being killed or losing their mules. These peasants 
fled whenever they found an opportunity, or gave 
information to the guerillas, in order to be spared 
themselves if they were attacked; the slightest neg- 
ligence on the part of ^he escorts was sufficient to 
deprive the army of its subsistence. 

At the commencement of the month of March, 
Massena had succeeded in constructing two hun- 
dred boats, and all his preparations were completed; 

* See note 23. 



207 

but he could not attempt the passage of the Tagus 
without receiving fresh reinforcements. Souh and 
Mortier could afford him no effectual assistance until 
Badajos should be taken, and that town still held 
out. 

Lord Wellington's army had met with no con- 
siderable loss since the opening of the campaign; it 
had just received reinforcements from England and 
amounted to forty thousand British soldiers, besides 
the Portuguese regular troops, which had been con- 
siderably augmented and improved by active ser- 
vice. Marshal Massena's on the contrary had been 
daily diminishing for the last seven months, by the 
attacks of the irregulars, the want of supplies, and 
by sickness; it was reduced to one half of the origi- 
nal number that entered Portugal. 

Such was the situation of the French at the begin- 
ning of March, when a convoy of biscuit, on its way 
from France, was carried off by the Spanish parti- 
zans.* On the eve of being totally without provi- 
sions, they were forced to think of retreating, and 
they at last abandoned Portugal, after a campaign of 
seven months' duration, without having fought as in- 
gle pitched battle. They yielded to the constancy 
with which the British commander adhered to a sys- 
tem, that deprived his enemy of every chance of vic- 
tory, by withholding every opportunity of fighting. 

The sick, the wounded, and the baggage of the 

* Vide note 24. 



208 

French set out on the 4th, conveyed on a vast num- 
ber oJ" beasts of burden, and on the 5th their army 
began its retreat. Marshal Ney, who commanded 
the rear, advanced his corps from Leyria to Muliano, 
to threaten by this offensive demonstration the flanks 
of the British, and prevent their moving, while the 
rest of the French army was getting forward on its 
march. 

The French arrived on the 10th at Pombal; their 
rear- guard detained the British van almost the whole 
day of the 1 1th before that tow n, which they aban- 
doned in the evening, and retired during the night to 
a strong position in advance of the defilee of Rtdinha 
upon the Adangos; they passed the defilee, under the 
protection of their artillery, which thundered from the 
neighbouring heights on the enemy as they made 
their appearance. Tlie French rear again formed in 
order of battle behind the pass of Redinha, and then 
fell back on the main body, which waited for them 
in the position of Condeixa. 

The military skill of the French, says an English 
writer,* was evident at every moment; they allowed 
no advantage of ground to escape them; their rear- 
guards never abandoned a position until it was com- 
pletely turned, and then only to seize another which 
they defended in the same manner. The French co- 
lumns retired slovvly towards some central point in 
a position selected beforehand, where they united in 



* Edinburgh Annual Register, 1811, page 257. 



209 

mass to rest themselves, resist their enem^f, repel 
his attacks, and then resume their march. Marshal 
Ney covered the retreat with some chosen troops, 
whilst Mass6na directed the progress of the main 
army, holding himself always prepared to support 
if necessary his rear-guard. The talents of this great 
commander, says the English Military Chronicle,* 
"never appeared so eminent; nothing can equal the 
ability which he displayed on this occasion." 

On the 15th, the French took post on the Ceira, 
leaving a guard at the village of Foz de Aronce, 
where a sharp engagement took place; the next day 
they destroyed the bridge on the Ceira, and aban- 
doned their position on the i7th, to retire upon the 
Alva. The English army halted upon the Alva, 
waiting for provisions; ai:id the French were follow- 
ed as far as Guarda only by light troops, the Portu- 
guese militia and insurgents, who pressed <>n them 
with the greatest pertinacity, and gave no quarter 
to the wounded and stragglers who fell into their 
hands. 

Want of provisions obliged the French to hasten 
their march; they found, on leaving Portugal, as 
well as when they had entered that kingdom, none 
but deserted villages and empty houses. Exasperated 
by fatigue and privation, the soldiers abandoned 
themselves to every excess; they burnt the villages 
and even some of the larger towns. In their greedy 

* Military Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 405. 
3D 



no 

search for plunder, they profaned the churches by 
despoiling them of their ornaments, violated the 
sanctity of the tombs, dispersed the relics, wreaking 
upon the ashes of the dead the vengeance they were 
unable to exercise on the living. The French army 
remained at Guarda till the 29th; on the approach 
of the English they abandoned that town, and placed 
themselves in the strong position of Ruivinha; they 
defended with success the ford of Rapoula on the 
Coa during the whole of the 3d of April; and on the 
4th they re-crossed the Portuguese frontier, leaving 
a feeble garrison in the town of Almeida. 

The system of defence which reduced marshal 
Massena to the necessity of abandoning Portugal, 
was similar to that of the Spaniards; any nation pos- 
sessed of patriotism may adopt it with equal success. 
It consists in avoiding general engagements, in for- 
cing a large army to subdivide itself in order to 
combat in detail, and to paralyse itself by a want of 
concert in its parts; or else, should it remain united, 
in exhausting the enemy's strength by intercepting 
all his supplies; this is the more easy in proportion 
to the greatness of his numbers; every successful 
engagement necessarily draws him farther from the 
country vvhence he derives his resources. 

In the great military states of central Europe, 
where the nations took little interest in the quarrels 
of their governments, a victory, or simply the occu- 
pation of a country, furnished the French abundantly 
with provisions, ammunition, arms, and even sol- 



211 

diers; it might be said of their armed force as Virgil 
says of fame, " vires acquirit eundo,''^ its progress 
adds to its strength. 

In Spain and Portugal, on the contrary, the forces 
of the French always diminished as they advanced, 
from the necessity of making numerous detachments 
to combat the population of the country, to provide 
subsistence, and guard their communications; their 
armies were quickly reduced, even after victories, 
to the situation of the lion in the fable, who tears 
himself with his own claws, while making vain ef- 
forts to destroy the flies which torment and obsede 
him. 

The world should not forget that Spain has sus- 
tained, almost alone, for more than five years, the 
weight of the immense power of the emperor Na- 
poleon. Victorious in Italy, on the Danube, the 
Elbe and the Niemen, he had subjected or attached 
to his fortune a great portion of Europe. By uniting 
under his banners the vanquished to those who had 
conquered them, he had transformed his enemies into 
allies. The Italians, the Poles, the Swiss, the Dutch, 
the Saxons, the Bavarians, and all the warlike Ger- 
mans of the Rhenish confederation, mingled with the 
French, and emulous of their fame, sought to prove 
in batde that they rivalled them in their contempt of 
danger and of death. 

The great powers of the north and east of Europe 
which yet retained sufficient strength to resist him, 
were dazzled by the brilliancy of Napoleon's achiev- 



212 

ments and good fortune. He distributed kingdoms 
among bis companions in arms, as he did the go- 
vernmeni of provinces in France among those who 
were devoted to him; the title and authority of king 
were no longer considered but as a military grade 
in his armies. 

When hostilities first commenced in Spain, in 
1808, the French had already invaded Portugal 
without resistance; they occupied Madrid, the cen- 
ter of Spain, and had possessed themselves of seve- 
ral fortresses by stratagem. The best of the Spanish 
troops \'vere retained in the ranks of the French in 
Germany and Portugal; those which remained in 
Spain did not yet know how to distinguish the au- 
thority of the French from the will of Charles the 
Fourth and Ferdinand the Seventh. 

While keeping these captive sovereigns in France, 
and giving to Spain his brother for their king, Na- 
poleon had counted on having to deal with a people 
weak and without energy, who would prefer the do- 
minion of a stranger to the horrors of war in the very 
boiSom of their land. Europe thought, with the em- 
peror Napoleon, that the Spaniards would bow them- 
selves without resistance under the yoke. 

During five years the French gained successively 
in Spain ten pitched battles, conquered almost every 
fortified town, and could, nevertheless, obtain the 
lasting submission of not a single province. Spain 
was reduced to the walls of Cadiz, as Portugal to 
those of Lisbon. If the French had become masters 



213 

of these cities, not even then would the fate of the 
Peninsula have f een decided; while their armies 
were every where victorious, the guerillas were ma- 
king incursions to the very gates of Toulouse, in 
the heart of France. 

The Spanish nation was animated by one and 
the same- sentiment, love of independence and de- 
testation of foreis^ners who were desirous of hu- 
miliating their pride by imposing a ruler on them. 
It was necessary to overcome not armies nor for- 
tresses, but the feeling which filled every breast in 
the country. The soul of each individual was the 
object of attack, — a bulwark which is not to be 
forced by bullets or by bayonets. 

Since these memoirs were written, we have seen 
the Russians, and afterwards the Prussians giving to 
northern Europe proofs of devotion to their native 
land, similar in many respects to that which has 
illustrated the Spaniards; in consequence Russia, 
Prussia, and Spain have been speedily freed from 
their common enemy. These events which have 
changed the face of Europe, demonstrate as forcibly 
as the loni^ and noble resistance of the Spanish peo- 
ple, that the real strength of states consists not so 
much in the number and power of their regular ar- 
mies, as in a sentiment, whether religious, patriotic, 
or political, whi< h identifies the interest of each in- 
dividual with those of the nation. 



NOTES 



M. DE ROCCA'S MEMOIRS. 



Note T — Page 6. 

See Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bour- 
bon, by William Coxe, vol. 3d, p. 321. London, 1813. 

Note II. — Page 12. 

The note of page 1 2 is taken almost entirely, as to the facts 
concerning the Spanish armies, from the letters of major- 
general Broderick, commissioner with the army of general 
Blake, and from those of other officers sent by the British 
to the different Spanish armies. See Extracts from Letters 
laid before Parliament. — General Broderick to Lord Ciistle- 
reagh, 10th Sept., 22d Sept., and 5th Nov. 1808. 

It is plain from the facts stated in these letters that Spain 
would have been certainly liberated from the French at the 
close of 1808, if the armies of the northern powers had not 
been paralysed by the conferences at Erfurth. Thirty-four' 
thousand English troops were advancing to Burgos; which 
Force joined to that of the Spaniards, would have been more 
than sufficient to constrain king Joseph's army to re-cross 
the Pyrenees, 

Note III.— .Page 37. 
Se& letters from the central Junta of Spain, dated Madrid, 



216 

2d Dec. 1808, to General Sir John Moore;— from the Junta 
of Toledo to the san^e, of 5th Dec. i 8i 8.— -from the Marquis 
de la Romana to the same, without date. 

Note IV — Page 53. 
Letters published in the Journal and Correspondence of 
Sir John Moore — from Colonel Graham, 7th Dec. 1808 — 
from the Duke del Infantado to his Fxcellency John H. 
Frere, 13th Dec. 1808. From the Maruuis de la Romana, 
21st Dec. — From the Prince de Neuchaiel to Marshal Soult> 
10th Dec. 1808, 

Note V Page 54. 

The details rcvspecting the march of the British army and 
its retreat upon Coruiia are taken from Sir John Moore's 
Corre spondence , 

Note Vr —Page 60. 

Several of Mr. Frere's letters to General Moore confirm 
this opinion. It was that officer's intention to cross the Tagus 
at Almarazj to defend the opposite bank of that river, or re- 
treat to the south of the Peninsula, 'ihe open despatch, which 
I was the bearer of, to the Prince of Neuchatel, and of which 
I speak in page 48, informed the emperor Napoleon that Ge- 
neral Moore was making preparations to enter Estremadura 
through the passes of Avila, in order to cross the Tagus at 
Almaraz, and that the bridge at the latter place had been 
mined by the Spaniards. 

Note VII— .Page 82. 

Se^ the official report of the battle of Medellin, published 
at Seville by the Spanish Junta, and the decree consequent 
to the battle, in la Gazeta extraordinaria del Gobierno, 1st 
April, 1809. 



217 

Note VIII— Page 82. 

See Letters fi'om Joseph Bonaparte to General S6bastiani, 
9th April, 1809, and from Marshal Jourdan to the same, loth 
April — intercepted by the Spaniards, and laid before the 
British Parliament in 1809. 

Note IX Page 84. 

Vide Edinburgh Annual Register, History of Europe, 
chap, xxiii. pages 567, 568, 569, 570. 

Note X — Page 85. 
See the official report o) the Marquis de la Romana, dated 
Paramo del Sil, 30th March, 1809. 

Note XI.— Page 85. 
This fact is stated in a despatch from Mr. Frere to Mr. 
Canning, Secretary of State, dated Seville, 10th July, 1809. 
See papers laid before Parliament. 

Note XII.— Page 86. 

See Treatise on the Defence of Portugal and principal 
events of the Campaigns under Lord Wellington, by W m. 
Granville Elliot, captain of the royal artillery; 3d edition, 
Lond. 1811, p. 229. 

Note XIII —Page 87. 
See Letters from Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Welles- 
ley to the Right Hon. Lord Castlereagh, of 12th and 18th 
May, 1809. 

Note XIV.— Page 88. 

See letters from Marshal Soult to Joseph Bonaparte, dated 
Puebla de Sanabria, 25th of June, 1809. These lettei^s were 
intercepted by some of the guerillas, and were among the 
documents laid before the British Parliament in 1810. 

2E 



218 



Note XV.— Page 96. 
See Marshal Jourdan's letter to Marshal Soult, dated Bur- 
gos, July 30, 1809; and one from Sir Arthur Wellesley to 
Lord Castlereagh, dated Talavera de la Reyna, 29th July, 
1809. 

Note XVI Page 104. 

Vide letters from General Venegas to his Excellency Don 
Antonio Cornel, Secretary at War to the central Junta of 
Spain; Ocaiia, 29th and 30th July, 1809. 

Note XVII.— Page 104. 
Vide Narrative of the Campaigns of the Portuguese Le- 
gion, by Brigadier-General Sir Robert Wilson; Lond. 1812. 

Note XVIII— Page 106. 
Vide letter from the Duke del Parque to Don Antonio 
Cornel, of August 3, 1809; and the journal of the move- 
ments and situation of the French army in Old Castile, from 
the 28th of July to the 2d of August, as reported by the Spa- 
nish gueiullas- All the above are taken from papers laid be- 
fore Parliament, 8cc Sec. 

Note XIX.— Page 184. 
See Extracts from Spanish Nev^rspapers, as published iix 
the Edinburgh Annual Register. 

Note XX Page 193. 

See Narrative of the Campaigns of the Loyal Lusitanian 
Legion under Brigadier-General Sir Robert Wilson. 

Note XXI — Page 194. 
See Plan and Description of the Intrenchments at Torres- 
Vedras, by Captain William Granvillle Eliot, Royal artillery. 



219 

Note XXII.— Page 197. 
Edinburgh Annual Register for 1810, page 410. 

Note XXIII.— Page 206. 
Edinburgh Annual Register for 181 1, page 252. 

Note XXIV.— Page 20r. 
Edinburgh Annual Register for 18 11, page 254. 



•^hwm 







WA 



''mm' 



;^}f)w^\ 



-^y 



,^J 



1^^-' 









r./«p^ 










'kf^mmffm^ikfMimm'k 



